No jabs before final claims winner
BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- World Cup winner Horst Eckel said on Thursday he had received one glucose injection during West Germany's 1954 tournament triumph over Hungary.
"It was only once," Eckel said when asked about media reports the players got glucose injections. "I swear that we didn't get anything before the final match."
Eckel, 72, insisted claims the team used performance-enhancing stimulants were absurd and attacked those he said were trying to spoil the legacy of the side.
Eckel, one of three members of the team still alive, added in Bild newspaper: "Just once we got glucose injections -- I can't remember which match it was any more.
"Otherwise we always got glucose in juice form at breakfast -- everyone was free to take what they wanted. No one was required to take anything."
The German Football Association (DFB) has denied the reports by the country's ARD public television network that players had used performance-enhancing stimulants.
But the DFB has acknowledged they received glucose and vitamin C treatments.
Walter Broennimann, a former groundsman at the stadium in Berne, Switzerland where the final was played, said he was told to keep quiet after finding used vials in the drains of the dressing room.
"I can't explain that," Eckel said about Broennimann's remarks.
"These people are trying to foul the nest and ruin everything 50 years after the fact. I've talked with doctors who laughed about this. Doping with vitamin C? That's impossible. I don't understand the world any more. It's insulting."
West Germany's shock come-from-behind victory over Hungary in the final lifted the ravaged nation as it emerged from its post-war trauma and helped trigger the ensuing "Economic Miracle."
A film about the team called "Das Wunder von Bern" (The Miracle of Berne) was a huge 2003 box office hit in Germany, released ahead of the 50th anniversary celebrations of that first World Cup title due later in 2004.
Former West Germany physician Franz Loogen, 84, has also said he gave the players Vitamin C injections. Loogen said he told the players laboratory rats given the injections were able to swim for three hours longer.
