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FIFA won't ban nandrolone Study shows substance occurs naturally in men, too
Posted: Friday March 03, 2000 05:06 PM
GENEVA (AP) -- FIFA has decided it won't suspend soccer players who test positive for the banned steroid nandrolone after a study showed men naturally produce the substance, a spokesman said Friday. The world soccer governing body commissioned the study, carried out in recent months by a Swiss-based researcher, "to find out whether the male body can produce nandrolone like the female body does when pregnant," FIFA spokesman Andreas Herren said. The study involved 148 Swiss top-level and second-division soccer players, he said. "It was found ... that under physical stress [such as training and exercise] men do indeed produce endogenously nandrolone in a quantity that is such that the threshold value of two nanograms per milliliter of urine could well be produced by the athlete himself," Herren said. The spokesman added that it is not yet scientifically clear how much nandrolone the body could produce. Tests showing values above the threshold value currently trigger suspension. "For that reason FIFA says we, in our doping regulations ... knowing that there is this possibility that the body itself produces nandrolone, we cannot impose sanctions against athletes in football who test positive for nandrolone," he said. "One can say [that] rulings on the threshold value as known so far could not be upheld in a court if the sanction were attacked by lawyers, and the lawyers have very clearly said so." Nandrolone has produced a recent spate of positive results in top athletes. Former world champion sprinter Merlene Ottey and former Olympic champions Linfor Christie and Dieter Baumann have been among the stars who have received recent bans after testing positive for the drug. All have protested they are innocent. Officials have been puzzled by a sudden surge in positive tests for nandrolone, which has been available for decades and is easily detectable in standard urine controls. Many believe the increase is the result of athletes' taking supplements which, they may or may not know, contain nandrolone. The International Amateur Athletic Federation in February agreed to study the possible effect of food supplements on those who failed the nandrolone tests. But pending the results, it is retaining its penalties for athletes testing positive for the banned steroid. Herren declined to say what impact FIFA's position might have on the International Olympic Committee's stance toward nandrolone. "It's up to them what they decide," he said. The world's leading IOC-accredited drug control laboratories last week restated the validity of their nandrolone tests.
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