Nadal slams French TV puppet show’s drugs charge

The sketches on Canal Plus France’s television show Les Guignols whipped up a storm of outrage in Spain, prompting its foreign minister to order a formal protest to French media.
One sketch featured a puppet likeness of world number two Nadal refuelling the tank of his car from his own bladder, a fill-up which powers up the car and leads to him being pulled over by police.
In another, a satirical advert asks people to donate blood to cycling champion Alberto Contador, who has been slapped with a two-year doping ban, and thus share in the glory of his cycling victories.
The Les Guignols show is a “repeat offender”, the 25-year-old tennis star told Spanish media Thursday, adding that he had not seen the video himself.
“One day is ok but when, from what I understand, it is done repeatedly then that is not so good because it crosses the line a bit. And it is always with the same focus,” he said.
“The institutions in general have to defend us because I don’t think it is a campaign against me or a campaign against anyone. It is a campaign against Spain in general, and against Spanish sports.”
Nadal said Canal Plus alone was not to blame.
“I don’t think it is only Canal Plus that does it. I think there are other media pushing it along and I think that is something punishable because in Spain sportspeople who are not clean are punished, they don’t compete.
“It is a globalised campaign from the neighbouring country,” he said.
“With a lot less resources than them we have achieved much more in the last years so we are doing something better – it is not a question of pills or syringes, I can assure you.”
Nadal said Spain had a system of sports drugs testing that ensured cheats were excluded from competition. He added that he himself had been tested three times already this year.
The Swiss-based Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday handed a two-year ban to Tour de France winner Contador after he tested positive for the banned substance clenbuterol.
Contador says it was due to a contaminated steak eaten during the 2010 Tour de France, one of three editions of the French race that he won. He said on Tuesday that his lawyers were looking into a possible appeal. – AFP.