Brazil 2014: To better fight doping, FIFA to freeze test samples

New anti-doping measures will be implemented by FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Jiri Dvorak, chief medical officer of FIFA, announced on 25/04/2014. Urine and blood collected from players during tests will now be frozen.

"We will freeze [samples] and keep them as long as we want, and we can always revisit the samples," said Swiss doctor Jiri Dvorak in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. He said that this strategy was developed in the late 1960s; thanks to improving anti-doping methods, it can be easier to find the presence of doping agents by reviewing samples from recent years, and this provides an extreme deterrent.

FIFA also announced that the 736 players (32 teams of 23 players each) to participate in the World Cup will each be tested at least once before the tournament begins on 12/06/2014. Anti-doping tests will also be held during the competition.