UEFA reports clean bill of anti-doping health at finals of Euro 2020
NYON: European federation UEFA has reported not one positive dope test among all 1,616 urine and blood samples taken before and during the rescheduled Euro 2020 finals in June and July.
UEFA with world governing body FIFA and national anti-doping organisations from several of the 24 competing countries.
Many NADOs also provided anti-doping volunteers who assisted UEFA in the notification and chaperoning of players to the doping control station after matches.
Analysis of the testing data stored in the World Anti-Doping Agency database for the 624 players involved in Euro 2020 showed that UEFA, FIFA and the NADOs collected a combined total of 1,616 urine and blood samples between January 1 and the end of the final.
This represents an average of 2.59 samples collected per player within a period of just over six months. UEFA collected 1,025 of these samples, while 591 were collected by FIFA and European NADOs.
All the samples collected during the pre-tournament testing programme and final tournament were negative.
A UEFA statement said:
Some 616 of the samples were collected out-of-competition from players who gathered with their national teams during the international week of FIFA World Cup 2022 qualifying matches in March, in the immediate pre-tournament period in May and June, and at training base camps and team hotels between matches during the tournament.
A further 584 of these samples were collected from EURO 2020 players by UEFA, FIFA, and NADOs in-competition in a targeted testing programme involving UEFA, FIFA and national league matches.
The final 416 samples were collected by UEFA during tests performed at final tournament matches, representing an average of 8.16 samples per match.
Given the pan-European format for EURO 2020, a number of different WADA-accredited laboratories were used to analyse samples, with all participating laboratories collaborating with each other to agree a complex analytical menu designed to test for Erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, Human Growth Hormones and Selective Androgen Receptor Modulators (SARMs) – in addition to the standard WADA analytical menu.
In-competition samples were analysed within 24 hours of receipt by the laboratories, to ensure that the initial results were known before the teams’ next games.
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