This week on Off The Ball we're talking about:

Drugs in Jamaican athletics. Renee Anne Shirley was on the show this week, famous for blowing the whistle on the shoddy testing regime in the build up to London 2012. We were ostensibly talking about Nesta Carter’s disqualification from the Beijing games but in reality we were talking about the broken system of World Athletics. There is too much money involved from too many interested parties for any testing regime to be credible in the long run. Athletics needs to be torn apart and rebooted.

This weekend we'll be talking about:

The self-fulfilling prophecy of the absence of the magic of the FA Cup. Sometimes you have to fake it 'til you make it and the FA Cup could do with a wee bit of hype to see if people can get behind it again. Watching Preston North End against Arsenal in the last round at a packed Deepdale and wanting Daryl Horgan and Aiden McGeady to do something great, it was easy to see how this tournament was once enthralling. Maybe it can be again but the organisers need someone credible to beat the drum and convince us it’s worth caring about.

Don't miss this weekend:

Maybe spend some time with your family, take a walk outdoors, see some live music, drink good coffee and meet other human beings. From here on out the leagues start in GAA, the Six Nations return and the Premier League hurtles towards a conclusion. It’s a chance to squirrel away some brownie points for staying up late to watch the Super Bowl, or that ridiculous sporting weekend of March 17th.