Play your part
As a player, you have a number of responsibilities when it comes to anti-doping matters.
Whereabouts
If you are in a registered testing pool, it is important that you are available for testing when required at a given time and place, seven days a week, as well as at all training sessions and competitions.
You are responsible for providing information on your whereabouts (where you will be and when) to the anti-doping authority whenever they ask you for it. If they attempt to test you based on the information you have provided and you are not at the indicated location and at the indicated time, you will face similar consequences as if you had tested positive for a prohibited substance.
Compliance
Refusing to take part in a doping control can lead to the same consequences as a positive test. If you refuse to take a test when notified, you must provide the reason why on the relevant form and inform the governing body as soon as possible.
If you fail to submit a sample or refuse, evade or tamper with any part of a doping control, it counts as an anti-doping rule violation and can result in you being banned for up to four years.
Reporting/whistleblowing
The fight against doping in football needs everyone to play their part. If you have seen or have reason to believe that someone else has committed an anti-doping rule violation, you have a duty to flag it up using FIFA’s doping reporting mechanism.
Self-education
The one person you can trust above everyone else is you. That is why you should consult WADA’s Prohibited List yourself rather than rely on others to know what you can and cannot take.
If you are ever in doubt about whether or not the ingredients of any food, drink, supplement or medication are allowed, do not take it. Always double-check: do your own research, like checking the Global Drug Reference Online (DRO), and ask for second opinions.
If you are found to have broken the anti-doping rules, wrong advice from a doctor is not a valid excuse and will not save you from the consequences.
Remember: YOU are responsible for what goes into your body.
Player support personnel
Everyone has a duty to protect sport and keep it clean, and that includes player support personnel (PSP). The FIFA Anti-Doping Regulations apply to you too, so don’t let one bad decision ruin a career.
If you work with players – whether you are a coach, medical doctor, physio or parent/guardian – they will rely on and trust your expertise, guidance and advice to assist them in achieving their sporting goals. With your help and vigilance, we can support players in their decision-making and reduce the number of incidents involving deliberate or inadvertent doping.
All PSP need to be aware of the essential anti-doping practices and tools available, to help ensure that players remain clean.
This is especially important for sports medics and nutritionists, who need to be confident in their practices and the advice that they give to players at all times.
Player support personnel – rights and responsibilities
The World Anti-Doping Code states the roles and responsibilities that PSP have in relation to anti-doping.
In this regard, you must:
- know and comply with the anti-doping rules, policies and practices that apply to you and the players that you support; - cooperate with the testing programme for players; - use your influence on players positively to foster the requisite values and behaviours to keep sport clean; - inform FIFA and your national anti-doping organisation if you have committed an anti-doping rule violation in the last ten years; - cooperate with any doping investigation when asked to do so; - not use or possess any prohibited substance or use prohibited method without a valid and justifiable reason; - take the opportunity to pursue education on anti-doping matters, whether through FIFA or through your national governing body, national anti-doping organisation, sports institution or professional association; - have conversations within your sporting environment on anti-doping and encourage regular participation in activities and events relating to clean sport; and - familiarise yourself with the universal rights available to players with respect to anti-doping, which are set out in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Athletes’ Anti-Doping Rights Act.
