UK Edition
Manchester City to appoint dedicated staff to update drug testers
Manchester City’s club doctor has revealed they will appoint a “whereabouts administrator” after admitting breaching anti-doping rules had brought their badge “into disrepute”.
Dr Matthew Brown confirmed City were in the process of recruiting someone responsible for updating the Football Association’s integrity department of the location of their players for drugs testing.
Pep Guardiola’s side were fined £35,000 last season after failing on three occasions to ensure their so-called whereabouts information was accurate.
Speaking at the Soccerex Global Convention in Manchester, Brown said: “We’re obviously not happy as a club because it does bring our badge into disrepute.”
Confirming he was one of several people currently “responsible” for updating the likes of the FA and Uefa, Brown revealed City were “in the process” of appointing a whereabouts administrator.
He added: “I know the chief execs of a lot of clubs are looking at, actually, if we’re going to need somebody to take ownership of that and actually get someone employed to be whereabouts administrator.”
Brown also declared more needed to be done to make a “difficult” system “easier to use”.
“The key thing is the number of players involved here,” he said. “We’re not just talking 25 first-team players. We’re talking the reserves, talking all the way down to the under-18s.
“And we need to update the FA if that under-18 player happens to go and train with the first team that day.
“And if we don’t update that within a certain time-frame that morning then that is potentially a strike.”
He added: “Years ago, it was up to the players. But what was happening is the players would forget to do it and the players would get sanctions about that. And if you get enough sanctions then that means a ban.
“And, obviously, these are the assets for the club, so we don’t want that to happen.”