Stop Selecting Drug Users for National XI, 'Bubi' Tells GFA

Increasing use and abuse of hard drugs, including cocaine, by some of our senior footballers must be stamped out swiftly - before they bring disgrace to Gibraltar and undermine efforts to get our soccer players and authorities recognised by UEFA and accepted by Spain. That was the bleak warning this week from former coach and manager of the national XI, Albert (Bubi) Buhagiar, who was ‘sacked' by the new Council of the Gibraltar Football Association in a bitter clash over selection of members of the national squad - six of whom Bubi had dropped as part of his disciplinary attempts to stamp out drugs and encourage a less ‘amateur' approach to the game.

The clash followed events at the international soccer tournament in jersey last year when the coach and the GFA's then president, Joseph Nunez, found that some of the Gibraltar team - which, nevertheless, put up an impressive showing against their English, Welsh and Scottish professional opponents - had been smoking marijuana.

Concerned About Vandalism

The two men - towering figures on Gibraltar's soccer scene for many years - had also been so concerned about vandalism by team members during a visit to play in Slovakia that they decided Gibraltar should not take part in a tournament scheduled to take place in the Scandinavian town of Aland in June. This led to the first friction between Bubi and the new GFA Council who wanted Gibraltar to enter the Aland tournament.

"There would be none of the four-star hotel accommodation which the squad enjoyed at other venues...in fact Aland would have been like playing in a prison," Bubi explained. "What's more in terms of their soccer skills the team would gain nothing from the experience; and, as well as this they would have been bored. And there's nothing so bad for team discipline as boredom."

At the first of series of three meetings with the new Council Bubi was asked if he was still willing to coach the Gibraltar squad as the GFA had decided that the would send a team to Aland.

"I told them ‘if you want me to go I will go', but that if I was to continue to coach and manage the team, a post I've held for the past nine years, there were certain players - and I named them - whom I would not select. Three were trouble-makers, two didn't want to play for Gibraltar anyway, and another three I believed to be involved in taking drugs."

Bubi claims that as a result of the conditions he had set, one of the Council members - two of whose sons were among those the coach had said would not be chosen - resigned. After this, at a third meeting with the remaining Council members "they removed me."

"Joey and I should have dropped seven offenders from the match the following day when we found they had been smoking pot in a hotel room in Jersey," he says glumly. "But they pleaded with us and we did not want to stir up a scandal...so we treated them as if everything was normal... though we called for a GFA investigation when we returned to the Rock."

Pending Case

There was one hearing, but both Bubi and Nuñez refute claims by the Vice President and Disciplinary Chairman (made in an interview with Chronicle sports staff) that "all cases have been dealt with and punishments awarded."

In a letter Nuñez points out: "This must be an error since, unless the case has been dropped by the GFA, I believe that there is still one case going back to the Jersey competition in respect of which a hearing was requested which has not yet been heard - the other case having been dealt with two weeks ago. I say this because the only two witnesses to the outstanding case are Mr Buhagiar and myself and neither of us have been asked by Mr Mir to attend before the disciplinary committee."

"The new committee should have dealt with the drug problem expeditiously," adds Bubi. "The former council wanted to get down to it - to have drug tests of suspected abusers and random checks of the others. Look, we have 400 kids playing football each week and we don't want them to have drug users as their role models. We don't want them as examples for the kids to follow. We don't want the kids even trying drugs."

Bubi argues that there are three areas in which Gibraltar soccer is in urgent need of action:

"As far as Spain's resistance goes, whether the GFA like it or not, they have now handed our opponents an argument on a plate," Bubi told VOX. "For the first time in a century of the game players went on strike - because they and their clubs wanted five players who had been disciplined reinstated. If we were already members of UEFA we would have been kicked out for that sort of behaviour.

Tournaments Abroad

"They also wanted the removal of Rule 30.1 which allows national associations to insist on players being available for their national XI. They were asked to play but didn't want to.

Our players have to realise that when we go to tournaments abroad we go to compete - not to play about.

"We have plated at all levels and I believe that with proper effort and a committed training schedule we can beat any amateur side in the world. We have already beaten semi-professional sides...and we have shown we can put up a good showing against professionals at club level. But some our players do not want to train...

"We can, I can deal with trouble-makers. We drop them from the squad - as I have done in the past and would do again. But players using drugs are a serious problem. We know who they are and we should test them and we should carry out random tests among the others. The trouble is that the use of cocaine in becoming common. Some just smoke a joint...and I don't have a personal problem with that...unless you are representing Gibraltar.

"So the GFA must act now, and stop selecting known drug users and so avoid embarrassing and disgracing Gibraltar."