Concern about effectiveness of FA's drug testing programme

The English Football Association drugs testing programme was attacked by a former FA drugs committee member last night over its "inability to catch anyone other than kids".

The attack came on the day that the FA extended the suspension of the former Charlton defender Jamie Stuart for for a further three months. The 21-year-old tested positive for cocaine and cannabis on November 17th last year.

"The testing programme is just not effective," said Reg Burr, the former Millwall chairman who until May sat on the FA disciplinary tribunal that hears drugs cases. "If you look back almost all the cases that came before the panel in my days there were the result of Monday morning tests. Everybody knows that senior pros and players who have had a game on the Saturday often don't turn up on Mondays. That's why all the players caught have been youngsters. The inability to catch anyone but kids is illogical."

Last night Burr called for more Saturday testing after matches to ensure that bigger name players are put on the spot. The FA say that at the moment 100 of the 500 tests annually conducted are taken on Saturdays. "I don't want to catch anyone or trap anyone," said Burr. "But if you are trying to eradicate drugs from the game you are sending out the wrong message if the only players you can catch are trainees and teenagers. It doesn't help to discourage drug-taking."

Britain's most senior anti-doping official, the UK Sports Council's director of ethics and doping Michele Verroken, said last night that Burr's comments should not be taken lightly. "Reg has been very close to the game and its disciplinary process," said Verroken. "If he has concerns about the effectiveness of the testing programme they are worth having discussions on.

"One of the things that every sport should consider is publicising details of who is tested, and when, to ensure that competitors and the public have confidence in the effectiveness of the testing programme."

The Football Association denied that the programme was not likely to catch senior players. "Those players are tested regularly," said Steve Double, the FA spokesman. "Every professional club is tested at least once during the season and, given that there is no evidence that the game has a problem with anabolic steroids, there is a very obvious reason why many of the tests are done on Mondays. We are testing mainly for social drugs and those sort of drugs are likely to be taken at the weekend, so you test for them on a Monday while they are still traceable. It's commonsense."

Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle (twice) have all been visited this season by the doping control unit. At one Premier League club four players were selected for a urine test, of whom two were senior first team professionals and two were youngsters. At least six England internationals have submitted to random tests after recent international matches on top of FA tests.

The FA's programme involves 500 random tests annually among the 2,200 registered professional footballers in England. There have been three positives this season compared to five in 1996-7, seven the year before, and 12 the year before that.