FIFA Medical Committee Chair Michel D'Hooghe said that FIFA will run up $250,000 in extra costs "as a result of having to send samples from this summer's World Cup across the Atlantic for analysis," as he set out plans for the most extensive anti-doping controls ever at int'l football's flagship tournament, according to David Owen of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. D'Hooghe explained that "almost 1,000 anti-doping controls in all would be effected, with all 736 selected players undergoing out-of-competition blood and urine tests." D'Hooghe confirmed that "testing would be conducted for the blood-boosting drug erythropoietin (EPO) and human growth hormone (hGH), as well as for anabolic steroids." For the first time, information collected at a World Cup "will be used to help to construct footballers' biological profiles, in an attempt to pinpoint suspicious patterns that might be indicative of doping." D'Hooghe said that "FIFA has decided to keep Brazil 2014 samples for eight years, to permit retrospective testing where this is judged necessary" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 4/29).
