UEFA launches anti-doping reporting platform

With the launch of the 2017/18 football season, UEFA has once again enhanced its comprehensive anti-doping programme, introducing a reporting platform designed to encourage players and team staff to report their doping suspicions.

UEFA’s anti-doping programme aims to protect the integrity of European football and provide clean athletes in all its competitions with a fair playing field.

Through the use of the Athlete Biological Passport, the advice given by anti-doping expert scientists, and the support of the European national anti-doping agencies (NADOs), UEFA delivers a comprehensive, intelligence-led testing programme.

In order to gather additional information, UEFA has expanded its Integrity Reporting Platform and App in order to allow players, coaches, team doctors and other people to report alleged anti-doping rule violations.

The Reporting Platform and App have been successfully used to fight match-fixing for a number of years. UEFA recognises the crucial role that ‘whistle-blowing’ can play in preventing doping, and wants to give informers the opportunity to come forward in a confidential and secure way to report their information.

UEFA encourages anyone who has witnessed an anti-doping rule violation being committed, or who has reasonable grounds to believe that doping has taken place in football, to get in touch.

Informers have the opportunity to provide their contact details, or access a secure post-box where information can be exchanged anonymously. The confidential Reporting Platform and App are available in seven different languages ─ allowing users to report in whichever language they feel most comfortable.

The Integrity platform can be accessed online on UEFA’s website or via an ‘Integrity App’ that can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play.

Alongside testing and investigations, prevention is also a crucial aspect of UEFA’s anti-doping programme. All teams taking part in UEFA’s youth tournaments over the summer received a personalised anti-doping education session by one of UEFA’s anti-doping experts.

The sessions are designed specifically for youth players and highlight the consequences of taking drugs, including the risks to their health and their career.

UEFA aims to educate its young players with the information they need to remain clean throughout their careers. All players are informed about the WADA Prohibited List, the doping control process, their rights and responsibilities and where to go for advice and support. Using the information given during the sessions, UEFA wants future generations of top footballers to continue to practice the values of clean sport.