UEFA announces first-ever blood tests at Euro

Players at the upcoming Euro 2008 football tournament from June 7 to 29 in Austria and Switzerland will have to undergo blood tests for the first time, European football's ruling body announced on Wednesday.

 Part of the organisation's anti-doping drive, heads of the football associations of the 16 participating nations signed an anti- doping charter, ensuring their commitment to fight doping in football.

 "For the first time ever, blood tests as well as urine samples will be taken," UEFA said at a press conference in Vienna. The rule applies for all 300 planned tests, extending the current testing regime. There will be tests for the illicit use of EPO or growth hormones, as well as manipulations like blood doping.

 Random blood tests had already taken place during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

 UEFA President Michel Platini however ruled out the possibility that organised doping existed in football.

 "I don't really believe there is organised doping in football," he told journalists at a press conference at Vienna's Ernst-Happel Stadium, location of the tournament's finals. "And if it existed, we would know about it."

   As players were moving that much between clubs these days, it would be difficult for doping networks to keep a lid on illicit doings. But if a player "made a mistake, that could happen," he added.

 "We have good controls. I think there are better controls in football than in other sports," he said, referring to UEFA's new anti-doping rules.

 "We want to show the whole world are taking the fight against doping seriously. This is why we are signing this charter."

   Officials welcomed the increase in controls. "There was not a single positive test at the World Cup. Nonetheless the tests are important to kill off all suspicion," Wolfgang Niersbach, general secretary of Germany's football federation DFB said.

 UEFA said it planned unannounced spot checks at team base camps, either in the early stages of preparation or just before the first match.

 Each team will be tested at least once, with samples taken from 10 players in each team, adding up to a total of 160 tests ahead of the tournament.

 Results of those tests would be ready ahead of the Euro kick-off on June 7. Sanctions could be levelled against individual players, but for sanctions against teams more than one player must be affected, UEFA said.

 A disciplinary panel would also pay close scrutiny to the individual cases and substances involved. "It makes a big difference if two players test positive for cannabis or anabolics (steroids)," a UEFA official said.

 At the tournament itself, taking place in June in Austria and Switzerland two players of each team are to be tested at each of the 31 games. All tests results would be ready no later than 48 hours after delivery to UEFA's laboratory in Lausanne, the European football body added.

By Ivonne Marschall, dpa