Cascarino confirms Marseille doping allegations

Former Ireland striker Tony Cascarino repeated his accusations against Olympique Marseille that implied that players regularly received injections prior to their matches during his stay at the French club in the 1990s.

"I admit that I received injections but I know many other players who did the same," Cascarino told the French sports daily L'Equipe on Saturday.

"I don't know what it was but I'm 99 percent sure it wasn't legal. There was something not clean about it," said Cascarino.

The former Irish international played for Marseille between 1994 and 1997 where he scored 61 goals in his first two seasons.

Cascarino previously divulged his allegations about taking injections at the request of former club president Bernard Tapie in a column for The Times in December 2003 but Tapie strongly dismissed them.

Last month, former Marseille player Jean-Jacques Eydelie resurfaced the issue when he said that he took injections along with his Marseille teammates before the victory over AC Milan in the European Cup final in 1993.

Tapie sued Eydelie and L’Equipe after the accusations and UEFA said it will not investigate the issue.

"To be honest with you, I had heard the same thing when I arrived at the club in 1994," Cascarino admitted when asked about Eydelie's claims.

“It was always before the match," Cascarino told L'Equipe about the injections.

"We received an injection in the lower back. I was not quite sure what it was but as everybody told me it was good and as I felt great after each injection, I accepted what was being done to me".

Tapie was also accused of match-fixing in the 1990s, which resulted in Marseille being demoted to second division and the former club president being sent to prison for eight months.