FA to investigate new drugs claims
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- The English Football Association (FA) said on Saturday that they would investigate allegations made in a national newspaper that four England players and a fifth premier league player had used cocaine.
The Sun newspaper has passed on details of the allegations, made by a former league player, to UK Sport, the government's anti-doping agency, who are now liasing with the FA.
FA spokesman Adrian Bevington said no England players had tested positive for any drugs.
"Yes we have that (details of the allegations) now, conversations have since taken place between our head of medicine and UK Sport and we will give consideration to that over the next few days and decide what action, if any, is necessary," said Bevington.
"I don't want to start pre-judging cases here. It's simply a case that one individual has made allegations.
"No current England player has tested positive for any drugs, everyone should realise that at this stage. Yes, we have received certain evidence now. Whether that evidence is accurate or not has to be adjudged over the next few days.
"We take drug taking very seriously, we work closely with UK Sport and the PFA (Professional Footballers Association), we invest heavily in our drug testing programme and drug education and if we feel that action is necessary we will not hesitate to follow that through."
The allegations come at a sensitive time for English football. Manchester United and England defender Rio Ferdinand was charged with misconduct by the FA on Wednesday for "failure or refusal" to take a drugs test.
Ferdinand missed a random dope test on September 23 at his club's Carrington training ground, though he passed a test 45 hours after the scheduled one.
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