A dopey approach to drug testing

Duncan Mackay hears a leading tester and key Premiershipfigures condemn the English FA's 'inadequate' efforts to keep the game clean

One of the most experienced drug testers in the world has claimed that English football is not doing enough to tackle the increasing menace of performance-enhancing drugs, and that the system currently employed by the sport in Britain is "not thorough enough".

Greg Moon, a former drug tester for UK Sport - the government agency responsible for carrying out all testing on behalf of the Football Association - has insisted that the procedure falls below the standard of that on the Continent.

His comments confirm the fears of Premiership players and managers who have criticised the English methods compared with those in Italy, where, in recent years, some of the sport's biggest names have been caught, fined heavily and served suspensions.

In contrast, there has not been one high-profile case in England where a leading footballer has produced a positive test for a performance-enhancing drug. Critics suggest this has more to do with the inadequacy of the FA's drug-testing system rather than the fact illegal substances are not being abused.

Moon believes the design of the FA programme means that it is unlikely to catch top players. "It's very convenient that the vast majority of people getting caught are youth-team players," he said.

In many cases the FA is not even looking for performance- enhancing drugs. Nearly half the 1,000 tests carried out each season are analysed only for recreational substances, such as cannabis and ecstasy.

Statistically, football can claim to be the most drug-tested sport in Britain. Last season 1,016 tests were carried out in England, but a top player was still far less likely to be asked to provide a urine sample than a competitor in athletics, the next most tested sport. That is because football's testing is spread across the Premiership and Nationwide League, the Nationwide Conference, schools' and women's football, incorporating somewhere in the region of 5,000 players, whereas athletics concentrates on its elite performers. Last season there was random testing at only eight Premiership matches.

That is in contrast to Italy, where two players from each side are tested after every Serie A and B match. Approximately 5,000 tests are carried out each season there, as many as have been conducted in England during the past seven years. The most recent high-profile case involved Holland's Jaap Stam, who tested positive while playing for Lazio in October - only 10 weeks after he had been transferred from Manchester United.

'IN England, a high proportion of the number of tests carried out each year by UK Sport are related to football, but the proportion of tests carried out compared to the number of matches is very low," said Moon, who works for IDTM, the Swedish company that tests on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)

"The FA go to most clubs once a season, which is pointless because they are sign-posting what they are doing. You know, for example, that if you have your test in October you are safe. That doesn't sound very thorough to me."

The FA claimed this week that it already has the most comprehensive drug-testing system in the world, and that each Premiership club is visited at least three times a season.

"We have the system which is best for English football and we strongly refute any of these allegations completely," said an FA spokesman, Andrew Cooper.

The FA already concentrates much of its testing out of competition at clubs' training grounds, where they believe there is more of an element of surprise. This is in common with many other sports in Britain. Athletics, for example, carried out 452 out-of-competition tests during the period 2000-2001. But in football, tests sometimes take place at times when the top players are not available, for example when they have a day off following a competitive match.

"Never once did I go to a training ground and test anyone other than a youth-team player or reserve," said one drugs tester, who asked to remain anonymous.

Paolo Di Canio, West Ham's Italian forward, has been tested twice at the training ground during a five-year spell in English football. And he is among those who question how efficiently the system is operated.

"On one occasion, no one was there because we were playing away," he said. "I was injured, so I was training on my own, and that is why I was tested. Why visit a team when you know they are not going to be there?"

The International Olympic Committee, the organisation that sets the protocols for drugs testing in all sports, have for many years urged football to take the problem of doping far more seriously.

But Sepp Blatter, the president of FIFA, has consistently blocked attempts by the IOC and WADA to bring football into line with other major sports and impose two-year suspensions on anyone testing positive.

At this summer's World Cup, for the first time, two players will be selected from each side after every match and required not only to give a urine sample but also blood, so scientists can analyse whether they have been using the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin.

Guardian Service