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Chelsea fined 40,000 pounds over drug tests
Chelsea was fined 40,000 pounds by England's Football Association for conducting independent drug testing on its players.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 10:36 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
London:
Chelsea was fined 40,000 pounds by England's Football Association for conducting independent drug testing on its players, including former striker Adrian Mutu. The FA said on Thursday that an independent disciplinary commission had found Chelsea breached doping control rules when it tested players on July 12, 2004. The players included Mutu, who tested positive for cocaine in an official test two months later. The Romanian international was fired by Chelsea and banned by the FA for seven months. Chelsea is contesting the FA ruling and requesting a personal hearing. "While we accept there was a technical breach of the doping regulations in this case, we find it extraordinary that we have been found guilty of trying to undermine the drug testing system," Chelsea said in a statement. The club said the FA appeared to be more interested in "procedure than substance" by taking two years to prosecute "a technicality when common sense should have been applied." "Despite our efforts to find a sensible and speedy resolution, the issue became mired in a bureaucracy that makes a mockery of the claims that the organisation is modernizing itself," the club said. Chelsea said its sole intention in conducting a private test on Mutu was to "protect football from a drug taker", contending that random tests by the FA had failed to confirm club suspicions he was taking recreational drugs. "In the circumstances, the test on July 12, 2004 proved negative and an FA approved test was requested later that summer which was positive," the club said. Chelsea said Mutu later admitted to taking cocaine on at least seven occasions "vindicating our actions". Mutu joined Juventus in January 2005 and is now at Fiorentina. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
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