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 this country 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 in this country 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 have 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 that 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. In recent years lesser-known names such as John Malpass of Crewe and Byron Glasgow of Reading have returned positive tests for social drugs.
Random tests
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.
Stam joined the likes of Edgar Davids, Pep Guardiola and Fernando Couto in being caught by the Italian dope busters for using anabolic steroids. The Dutch international, who moved to Lazio from Old Trafford in October of last year, was handed a four-month ban but, like those before him, he claimed to be innocent and had no knowledge as to how he came to test positive.
"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.
"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.
But one Premiership manager said: "There are more and more foreign players coming into our game, and they are bringing new techniques. Most of these are good but some are illegal."
And Ron Atkinson, the former Manchester United manager, believes that the level of testing should be stepped up. "I think every club should be tested every week so we can stamp this problem out," he said. Six years ago, when in charge of Coventry City, Atkinson warned that drugs were the biggest danger facing professional football.
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. Likewise, 139 of the 185 tests carried out in powerlifting are away from competition. 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 that has taken in Sheffield Wednesday and his current club West Ham. 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?"
Cheats must be caught
And Di Canio's sentiments have been echoed by the Italian central defender Gianluca Festa who joined Middlesbrough from Internazionale in 1997.
"The big factor we have to take into account is that Italian football has one of the strictest drug-testing regimes in the world," he said. "In my five years in England, I have been tested just twice. Yet in Italy players are tested in every Serie A game. A total of four players are selected, two from each side, with urine samples sent to laboratories for analysis. There is no escape. I am fully in favour of this. If there are cheats, it is in the game's interest that they are caught."
England is hardly unique, however. Spain and Germany also have testing systems that have been criticised as being inadequate.
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. It once even threatened to dump the sport from the Olympics if it did not comply.
But Sepp Blatter, the president of Fifa, has consistently blocked attempts by the IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency to bring football into line with other major sports and impose two-year suspensions on anyone testing positive. "This is people's living," he said. "It would be impossible for us to uphold two-year bans under law anywhere."
This is despite the fact that Dr Michel D'Hooghe, chairman of Fifa's medical commission, claimed recently that top players across Europe are increasingly turning to banned products to cope with the punishing schedule they face. "There is no reason why football should be a special case," he said.
Dr Ivor Waddington, co-author of the recently published British Medical Association book Drugs in Sport, fears that some players may be given banned drugs against their will or without their knowledge. "There is undoubtedly real pressure on doctors and physiotherapists to take short cuts," he said. "There is lots of indifferent medicine being practised in football, which in the long term will present real health problems to the players."
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.
British players who failed the test
Cannabis
Chris Armstrong (Crystal Palace). March 1995: Club ban for four matches.
Lee Bowyer and Dean Chandler (both Charlton). March 1995: Counselling.
Craig Whittington (Huddersfield). Feb 1996: Six-month ban for second offence.
Laura Burns and Karen Hills (both Mill Hill). Feb 2000: Six-month ban.
Andy Clarke (Peterborough) Dec 2001: One-month ban.
Other drugs
Roger Stanislaus (Orient). Feb 1996: Year ban for cocaine.
Jamie Hughes (Tranmere). May 1996: Six-month ban for amphetamines.
Jay Notley (Charlton). Nov 1996: Three-month ban for cocaine, cannabis and ecstasy.
Adam Tanner (Ipswich). Feb 1997: Three-month ban for cocaine.
Jamie Stuart (Charlton). Nov 1997: Six-month ban for cocaine and marijuana.
Shane Nicholson (WBA). Feb 1998: Life ban for numerous recreational drugs, commuted to rehab.
Anthony Parry (Newcastle). July 1999: Sacked for morphine.
Byron Glasgow (Reading). July 1999. Sacked for cocaine and cannabis.
Alison Gordon (Langford). Feb 2000: Seven-month ban for cannabis and amphetamine.
John Malpass (Crewe). May 2000: Sacked for ecstasy.
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