Even if they cannot be punished, though, just being named and shamed would be something, and could lead to further investigations within the relevant sports.

Various parties had appealed the 2013 ruling - and not just the order to destroy the blood bags. Fuentes, who was originally handed a one-year suspended sentence for endangering public health, and three others - Manolo Saiz [former team manager at ONCE], Vicente Belda [former DS at Comunidad Valenciana] and Yolanda Fuentes [sister of Eufemiano] - were all acquitted on Tuesday when the Madrid’s Provincial Court ruled that blood was not a medicinal product.

Enrique Gómez Bastida, the former police officer who was in charge of the Guardia Civil’s operation in 2006 and now runs Spanish Anti-Doping [AEPSAD], expressed his “satisfaction” with the result, saying his agency would now look in more detail at what action it might be able to take and where it might be able to help the relevant anti-doping authorities.