Why do the FA test for social drugs out-of-competition when FIFA and the World Anti-doping Agency do not?
The FA social drugs testing programme was introduced as a result of a several incidents of professional players’ misusing alcohol and prohibited substances and was designed to help protect the health of players and the integrity of English football as a whole.
The positive findings from the last thirteen years of The Football Association Doping Control Programme indicate that social drug misuse is more prevalent amongst English players than performance enhancing substance misuse, hence there is a clear need to ensure that players do not impair their health or that of other players by training or competing under the influence of illegal drugs.
Therefore, whilst The FA prohibited list includes all performance enhancing substances as required by FIFA and WADA, it also includes a list of social drugs which are also tested for by The FA as part of the social drugs testing programme.
Social drugs do not enhance performance, especially when tested for out-of competition. Why should they be tested for under the FA programme?
The FA Doping Control Programme aims to ensure through a combination of testing and education that English football is free of the misuse of social drugs. The reasons for this are as follows:
- To protect the integrity of the game for players and supporters
- To protect the psychological and physiological health of players
- To provide a good example to young players
In a full-contact sport such as football, if a player trains under the influence of a social drug he/she may not only risk affecting their own health, but may also endanger the health of a fellow player if his/her performance is impaired by the psychological or physiological effects of the substance. It is therefore imperative that players are deterred from using social drugs at all times, not just when participating in a competitive fixture.