Africa-Press – Uganda. The drug for which Haiti defender Ernst Jean-Joseph was banned from the 1974 World Cup belonged to the ephedrin group that had seen American swimmer, Rick DeMont, stripped of his gold medal at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
And prior to the World Cup, Fifa had warned all team doctors to warn their players on the danger of using such medications for treatment of asthma, colds or any allergies.
But Antoine Tassy, the Haitian coach in a desperate attempt to save his team’s face, called the suspension “a tough blow for us,” adding, “Obviously Jean Joseph never had any idea he was doing anything wrong.” Despite his obsession to see his team at the World Cup, Haiti dictator Baby Doc Duvalier wasn’t the type that bought any whims.
When the players asked for a $5000-per-man bonus before the World Cup, he threatened them with death if they carried on such demands.
Drug embarrassment
Now everyone wondered how Baby Doc would react to this drug embarrassment.
Jean-Joseph spent two days around Munich’s Penta Hotel but the next day, the Tonton Macoutes, Duvalier’s ruthless secret police, dragged him kicking and screaming from the Haiti squad’s base at the Grünwald Sports School.
They badly beat him and confined him overnight in a room at the airport Sheraton Hotel. Next morning they marched him to a Pan Am flight to Port-au-Prince, to face Baby Doc.
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