FIFA reject blood tests to find World Cup dope cheats

FIFA are to test players' urine for EPO at the World Cup finals but there are to be no blood tests at the finals.

The world governing body's Medical Commission chairman Michel D'Hooghe says EPO or eritropoietina will be tested for this summer.

"We'll adopt the French method. I've read the International Olympic Committee report where it was stated that IOC employs double doping control procedures: testing both blood and urine. But we won't conduct blood tests," D'Hooghe told 'L'Equipe'.

"We know we run risks of facing some judicial problems. For instance, Edgar Davids and Frank De Boer have recently encountered such kind of complications. However, I still have the right to adopt such a procedure."

EPO was used extensively by cyclists and swimmers in the 1990s as well as long distance endurance athletes.

Its use in football is undetermined but the removal by D'Hooghe of the chance of blood testing at the World Cup finals should ensure that few players fall foul of doping restrictions.

Blood testing in sport is rare but accurately detects a range of steroids and performance-enhancing substances used by athletes. It is also the best test for EPO.

The leniency of the planned doping tests at the World Cup fits with more claims yesterday by former AS Roma coach Zdenek Zeman that football was not subject to rigorous dope test procedures.

Zeman accused Juventus of using steroids on their players in 1998 and the current coach of Serie B side Salernitana criticised the four month bans imposed recently on several Serie A stars for doping offences.

"Football gets off lightly compared with other sports," he said.

"Four-month bans with most of it in the summer.

"In athletics (Italian 800 metre runner Andrea) Longo got two years. But football is different."

Turin magistrate Raffaele Guariniello investigated dope use by footballers in Italy after Zeman's claims but his findings were never published.