By Tom Degun in Guadalajara
October 17 – The majority of the players who competed at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in Mexico earlier this year have returned positive doping tests due to contaminated meat with 19 of the 24 teams having squad members with traces of clenbuterol in their bodies.
Tests conducted in a laboratory in Germany following the conclusion of the tournament in June and July showed adverse findings of the banned anabolic agent in 109 of 208 urine samples taken at the tournament.
FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have decided not to prosecute in of the any cases because the weight of evidence pointed to meat contamination.
“It is not a problem of doping, but a problem of public health,” said FIFA medical officer Jiri Dvorak but WADA legal director Olivier Niggli claimed the issue was a very serious one for his organisation in their fight against drug cheats.
“It is extremely serious for WADA and not only for WADA but everybody because it is a public health risk for everyone travelling to and living there who gets exposed to this substance,” said Niggli.
“This is a prohibited substance, a powerful doping substance that we don’t want athletes to take.
“In the context of Mexico, however, it is difficult to difficult to differentiate.
“We have to work on that quickly.
“At the moment it is an issue in Mexico and probably also in China and would be perfect excuse for those who try to use doping.”
Ironically the FIFA Under-17 World Cup hosts Mexico, who won the tournament, were one of the five teams to have no player test positive for the substance after they had received a prior warning on the issue and all went on a fish and vegetarian diet that featured no meat.
The issue is still a major talking point in Mexico with the 2011 Pan American Games, the second biggest multi-sport event on the planet, currently taking place here.
Athletes competing at the Games were formally advised by WADA before the competition began to only to eat only in designated cafeterias but the issue has confused the legal certainty of prosecuting athletes who test positive for clenbuterol.
The most famous case involving the substance came when three-time Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain had traces of clenbuterol in samples taken during his victory last year.
The Spanish rider is set to face WADA and the International Cycling Union (UCI) in a landmark case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) next month after he claimed that contaminated beef bought from a butcher in his native country was responsible for his failed doping tests.
WADA’s Niggli though, declined to draw comparisons between the two cases.
“I don’t think we can generalise from what is happening in one specific country,” he said.
Mexican health official Mikel Arriola added authorities have begun a programme of arresting farmers and shutting down slaughterhouses to stop the issue from continuing.
“We are going to continue these inspections in order to avoid poisoning the general population and doping [athletes],” he said.
Contact the writer of this story at zib.l1734838927labto1734838927ofdlr1734838927owedi1734838927sni@n1734838927uged.1734838927mot1734838927
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