Mexico's Ochoa won't let career be 'stained'

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, one of five players dropped from Mexico's team after testing positive for a banned substance, said Friday he won't let his career "be stained by a thing I didn't do."

Ochoa was removed from Mexico's Gold Cup team on Thursday along with defenders Francisco Rodriguez and Edgar Duenas, and midfielders Christian Bermudez and Antonio Naelson, after the Mexican football federation said they had tested positive for clenbuterol.

"I didn't commit any crime, any error," Ochoa said.

Decio de Maria, the secretary general of the Mexican federation, said he believes the positive results came from the players eating contaminated beef. Last July, Tour de France champion Alberto Contador also tested positive for the banned anabolic agent and said he consumed the substance in tainted beef.

Hector Gonzalez Inarritu, director of player selections for Mexico, also blamed tainted meat.

"We have nothing to hide," Ochoa said. "Our conscience is clean because we haven't done a bad thing."

Ochoa is the most high-profile of the five players, a top keeper with Mexico City club America.

"It's sad these things happen," he added. "These are things that could happen in any restaurant in any location, and it happened to us when we were together in training. It is bad luck. We know this is going to be cleared up, and we're facing the situation."

The positive tests took place during a pre-tournament training camp on the outskirts of Mexico City.

Mexico defeated Cuba 5-0 on Thursday despite playing without the five.

CONCACAF, the governing body of football in the region, was to meet late Friday to decide if Mexico would be allowed to call up replacement players.

Mexico and the United States are the favourites to win the Gold Cup, which is the regional championship of North and Central America and the Caribbean.

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