Surrey Stars players raise aloft the Jayden Memorial Cup, the team beat Rewa 3-0 in the final at the Bear Creek Park in Surrey
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Local Sports
WITH cannabis now legal in Canada, sporting organizations need to be wary of its rampant use by athletes.
And to keep local soccer clean, the Fijian Soccer League of Greater Vancouver needs to implement mandatory drug test.
Aklesh Nand, a former football coach is of the view that the league has a responsibility and must do all in its power to keep football clean.
"Marijuana is legal for consumption in Canada, it is still illegal for all sports and football is not exception for that matter”.
Nand said while FIFA is continuously striving to keep football free from doping and lead by example to safeguard the future success and sustainability of football around the world, local fraternity must be just as proactive.
"Failure would only allow the use of marijuana to increase and this is a grave concern”.
Nand says the introduction of youth soccer, the FSLGV is duty bound to provide a safe and drug free environment for the future footballers of the community and for the greater good of the sport.
"Those that smoke or habitual who had otherwise lit up marijuana out of sight, would now light up in plain sight for that fix ahead of the football game.
"The kids must be the covered, he said, adds, the league, parents and elders must join hands to identify the far and few and call from severe suspensions to lifetime ban from the sport.
"We don’t have the resources to drug tests”, said the Fijian Soccer League of Greater Vancouver president Nadraj Nair.
"We already have rules in place, that is if anyone is caught using the drugs of any kind at parks during our league games or tournaments, would-be dealt with accordingly, disciplinary action and suspensions would follow.
"Legal is not an option, drugs have no place in football”, said Nair.
FIFA introduced regular doping controls in 1966 to ensure that the results of matches were a fair reflection of the strength of the contenders.
FIFA was therefore one of the first international sports governing bodies to acknowledge the problem and introduce active measures to combat it.
"Legalization of marijuana in the country just doesn’t allow players its consumption. We must keep drugs out of soccer”.
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