On October 8, 1990 there are no matches scheduled. However, there is some news: Andrea Carnevale and Angelo Peruzzi have tested positive for Phentermine. The two Roma players had played Roma-Bari the previous 23 September, which ended 1-0 due to the centre-forward’s goal. They are both selected by Anti-Doping for analysis and found, in fact, positive.
The president of the Football Federation, Antonio Matarrese, communicated this directly to his Roma rival Dino Viola. The counter-analysis, on October 7th, confirmed the outcome of the first visit. There are traces of Phentermine in the urine, a stimulant substance that derives from amphetamines and which can activate the production of adrenaline in the body. President Viola will say: “due to our principles and our rectitude, we are very far from things like this. I even go so far as to check the dishes, the fruit, the drinks that are given to the players. I never expected that he could something like this happens. I’m more shocked than offended, but I’m used to these torpedoes ending up in the sea.”
A few days later the disciplinary decision will arrive: a year’s ban and a 150 million fine for the company. The prohibited medicine is Lipopil, but to solve weight problems after a large dinner after the match against Benfica. On October 30th the sentence will be confirmed and there will be a protest in front of the Football Federation in Rome. Peruzzi would later say: “There had been no dinner, that pill wasn’t given to me by my mother as I said at the time, but by a player. I was coming off an injury and I was told that if I took it I wouldn’t hurt myself again. I was naive and stupid to believe that. They gave it a year because both I, Carnevale and the then president Dino Viola, told many lies to the sporting justice system. It was the upper echelons of the Federation who recommended that line to president Viola so I would only have three months qualification. But it went differently. They were waiting for this moment to massacre Viola and he trusted.”