Doping fight starts early

Players at the UEFA European Under-17 Championship are in Luxembourg to develop as footballers - and that means learning about the realities of doping.

Presentations
Jacques Liénard, president of the UEFA anti-doping panel, and Caroline Thom, of UEFA's anti-doping unit are giving a series of hour-long presentation to all eight teams at the finals teaching them about the dos and don'ts of the process. "We don't want to make them feel guilty," Thom told uefa.com. "At their age, our goal is to make them aware and answer their first questions about the problem".

U19 launch
The first such lectures were at last year's UEFA European U19 Championship in Northern Ireland. "We received very good feedback there," Thom said. "Several team doctors and managers encouraged us to keep on doing these presentations. There's a need for information on this theme, mostly in countries that do not have a national doping agency."

Practical explanations
There are three prongs to the anti-doping approach: controlling, preventing and educating. "The goal of our presence here is mainly education and prevention," Liénard said. How a test is carried out, how to know if a product or medicine contains a forbidden substance, to who players can address their questions, what are the right actions to take; these are some of the questions to which the two lecturers answer.

Social drugs
UEFA's experts of course must issue a stark warning: a positive test can lead to a two-year suspension, destroying a promising youngster's career. Thom said: "Between the ages of 16 and 20, 'social' drugs, like cannabis and cocaine, represent 80 per cent of the cases we discover." Too many positive tests also result because a player did not have enough information about the medicine their personal doctor had prescribed.

Therapeutic use
Liénard warns: "When medication is prescribed to a player, he should remind the doctor that he is an élite sportsman." Every athlete is responsible for what he takes and forbidden substances sometimes make up the composition of an apparently innocent medicine, so Liénard urges consultation with a team doctor. If one should need to take a substance on the banned list established by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), there is a form requesting exemption - click here . The example of insulin for diabetic is often given.

Blood testing
At the moment, tests are based on samples of urine. In the near future, blood tests will also appear. Liénard said: "It is likely that blood samples will be taken some days before the beginning of competitions." This will allow UEFA to continue their much-praised war on doping.

Pioneering work
Thom explained: "The adoption, in 2004, by the Executive Committee, of a new anti-doping programme and the setting-up of a working group quickly led UEFA to create the anti-doping unit and a panel composed of seven specialists. The setting-up of this structure and the release of the necessary funds proves our will to go forward. Today lots of sports federations cite UEFA as an role model."

Additional information on uefa.com
UEFA's anti-doping unit has a store of information on the anti-doping section of uefa.com. List of forbidden products, Therapeutic Use Exemption forms, UEFA's anti-doping regulation, FAQ and more additional information can be found, in seven languages. For the information in English click here.