The FA maintains the largest and most comprehensive out-of-competition testing programme in international football. Clubs are required to provide regular details of training schedules for their professional squads and youth teams to allow testing to be effectively planned and conducted, and to ensure than no club or player could deliberately avoid being test.
Historically, doping control programmes in sport have operated with rules and procedures specific to, and generally determined by the sport itself. However this practice changed significantly in 1999 with the formation of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the subsequent introduction of the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC). WADA’s role in harmonising and standardising the process of doping control across all sports and all countries has led to a fundamental change in the design and operation of all sports doping control programmes, including that of English football.
The WADC requires the establishment of a National Anti-Doping Organisation (NADO) to implement standards for the conduct of doping control within each country. The role of the UK NADO was awarded to UK Sport and as such, UK Sport are responsible for ensuring that all sports governing bodies in the UK implement the procedures and standards of the WADC. For The FA, this means a requirement to comply with UK Sport Doping Control policies, whilst also continuing to ensure compliance with the statutes and regulations of FIFA.
The Drug Testing Programme
The FA conducts over 1600 no-notice random drug tests on its players per season and this includes professional players, non-league football, women’s football and youth team football. Players can be tested from the age on 9 years old when they register with club Academies or Centres of Excellence and inclusion in the drug testing programme continues from this point for the duration of a player’s career.
Drug tests are always conducted at no-notice to players and clubs, and testing can take place on any day of the week including after matches and after training. Players may be tested both pre-season and during the regular season.
The importance of ‘out-of-competition’ testing
The FA drug testing Programme focuses on an effective combination of post-match and post-training testing which helps create the most effective deterrent possible for any player who may choose to use a prohibited substance. Random, no-notice out-of-Competition testing is recognised by the WADC and the UNESCO International Convention Against Doping on Sport (see http://unesdoc.unesco.org/ulis/index.html) as the most effective method of combating the use of drugs in sport.
Any doping control programme in football must contain a significant proportion of post-match (in-competition) testing to maintain a deterrent effect and ensure all results on the field are achieved fairly. However, a programme based solely around post-match testing would be predictable for a sophisticated drug cheat and would be likely to be ineffective against the carefully planned use of steroids and hormones such as EPO. Only by operating a truly unpredictable programme where players can be drug tested on any day of the week can a programme truly claim to deter and detect deliberate drug misuse.
The FA maintains the largest and most comprehensive out-of-competition testing programme in international football. Clubs are required by The FA to provide regular details of training schedules for their professional squads and youth teams to allow testing to be effectively planned and conducted, and to ensure that no club could deliberately avoid being tested. It is an offence under FA Doping Control Regulations for a club to fail to provide accurate training information to The FA or for a player to be unavailable for testing on two consecutive occasions when The FA attempt to test the squad.