On Monday, FIFA's medical committee announced that all athletes who have participated in the world soccer body's drug tests have been tested negative for dope. FIFA chief medical officiar Jiri Dvorak made the announcement at a news conference in Maracana stadium, Lebanon Daily Star reported.
According to Dvorak, every player on each of the 32 competing teams in the tournament had provided blood and urine samples for their drug tests. Dvorak said that the results from the 777 out-of-competition tests that were conducted between March 1 and June 11, and the additional 232 tests, four from each of the initial 58 matches played in Brazil beginning June 12, had all came back negative.
"We have not found any prohibitive substances... either prior or during competition," Dvorak stated.
Under FIFA rules, players from the four remaining teams competing for the World Cup championship title this year would still be subject to additional random drug testing, and the results are expected to come back before their next game.
The drug tests was the world soccer body's way to assure that all World Cup players had not cheat themselves into performing their best in the tournament. Chairman Michel D'Hoogie of FIFA's Medical Committee even believed that the use of performance-enhancing drugs was not widespread in football, in the World Cup at least.
"I will never say there is no doping in football, but I say there is no doping culture in football," D'Hoogie was quoted as saying.
It could be recalled that the last time a player was tested positive for taking drugs was in 1994. Argentinian star Diego Maradona was tested positive for ephedrine, and was later sent home in disgrace. In the years following the incident, FIFA reportedly toughened up its drug testing procedures, and has now implemented a biological profiling of its players to be able to track changes in the athletes' blood samples. The biological profiling has first started in 2011 but was used for the first time in the tournament.
