Thomas Rossier started by outlining the scope of UEFA’s responsibilities with 55 national associations who are members.
Rossier said that UEFA’s mission is “to protect, promote and develop football.”
The World Anti-Doping Agency sets the rules and monitors compliance, but UEFA is responsible and liable for their anti-doping programme.
In 2022, 33,601 samples were collected worldwide in football, slightly less than athletics, 0.3% returning an adverse finding. Of these tests, 3,431 samples were collected by UEFA, resulting in 3 anti-doping rules violations and suspensions for those players involved.
Rossier discussed how UEFA tests both in-competition and out-of-competition, but in men’s football, concentrates out-of-competition testing on the European Championship, Nations League, Champions League and Europa League as the whereabouts of the players needs to be known.
UEFA tries to establish which competitions and teams have the highest risk of doping, and uses anti-doping intelligence to help in this. This includes monitoring players’ use of social media, and their on pitch performance.
