FIFA: U-17 players' drug tests tainted

Updated: October 17, 2011, 1:55 PM ET
Associated Press

GENEVA -- A majority of the players tested at the Under-17 World Cup in Mexico had traces of clenbuterol in their bodies because they ate contaminated meat, FIFA said Monday.


FIFA medical officer Jiri Dvorak called the results "highly surprising" but insisted that teenage soccer players were not cheating.

"It is not a problem of doping, but a problem of public health," Dvorak told reporters, adding that none of the players were harmed or put in any danger.



"It's extremely serious for WADA," Olivier Niggli, the anti-doping watchdog's legal director, said on a conference call. "Now it's known it's an issue, warnings are going to be sent."



Mexico's players, who won the tournament, were pronounced as all testing clean because they were switched to a fish and vegetables diet before the competition, Dvorak said.

Team management took those precautions when five members of Mexico's senior squad were suspended for testing positive for clenbuterol at a training camp for the Gold Cup.

WADA wanted those players banned by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but dropped the appeal last week when new FIFA evidence suggested the Mexico Football Federation was right to exonerate them.

The Mexican cases have confused the legal certainty of prosecuting athletes who test positive for clenbuterol -- notably three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador.

Contador had minute traces of clenbuterol in samples taken during his 2010 Tour victory and will face WADA and the International Cycling Union in a landmark case at CAS next month with his title and integrity at stake.


"I don't think we can generalize from what is happening in one specific country," Niggli said, but acknowledged that China also had issues with livestock being fed banned drugs to improve the quality of meat.



Contador and the soccer players in Mexico all had their urine tested by the WADA-accredited lab in Cologne, Germany.



Mexican health official Mikel Arriola said authorities had begun a program of arresting farmers and shutting down slaughterhouses.


Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press