Drugs have ever been a big problem for the host of any big sports event, and this time, Brazilian world cup is apparently going to be the biggest soccer extravaganza and both FIFA and host have tied up their shoes to make it free of steroids. Yes, we are talking about measures world governing body has planned for upcoming mega soccer event in South American country which is as prone to drugs State as any other African part has been. According to media insides, FIFA has planned a sophisticated way to detect any foul play using both blood and urine profiles, and more interestingly, samples would be collected surprisingly to the players. Earlier, each of the team members had to pass the tests with predefined standards, but since these samples were collected using a defined process, many players used to pass all the tests without any problem even if they had taken a banned substance in the past. According to latest press release from Jiri Dvorak, FIFA chief medical officer, governing body can take these samples anytime from March 1 to the opening date of the event to trace out any irregularity inside players’ biological profiles.
To make this process even easier; FIFA has instructed each participating team to inform it in advance where they would be at a given point of time so medical staff could take samples randomly anytime. These standards could be interesting, coz sometimes, teams allow their players to go out and enjoy some gatherings within prescribed limits and if they now do the same, most of the players would become vulnerable for surprise checks and a possible positive testing. Dvorak added, “We will test all teams and all players between the first of March and the kick off, unannounced, at least once. From now on every player competing in the FIFA World Cup Brazil could be tested at least once, at any time, in any part of the world.”
Since, this time, anti-doping team will use both biological passports and a system to find out any steroid intake in any player’s body, this is going to be the firmest way used in any soccer event,. Though, last year’s Confederation cup also used biological passports but that process was not as technology based as current system is. This is also a bad news for players who have been accused of taking any kind of banned drugs in the past, coz they would now be subjected to more than one sample within a prescribed time frame to confirm if they are still taking it or not.