FIFA has done over 2,700 drug tests at the World Cup

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Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has carried out more than 2,700 drug tests on the 736 players from the 32 teams attending the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia and said that none of the results came back positive, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.

According to FIFA, four players at each match, including the finished 48 and the 16 in the future, have taken the tests and each of the 736 players have already taken it at least once. All the samples were sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) lab in Switzerland.

World Anti-Doping Agency /VCG Photo

The news came after Nick Harris of Sportsmail reported on June 23 that there was new evidence of Russia covering up the positive results of an anti-doping test of one of the country’s football players and swapping the original urine sample with a clean one.

Harris also wrote that FIFA knew about the cover-up and had documentary proof for it 18 months ago but chose to do nothing by talking to neither the Russian Football Association nor the country’s Sports Ministry.

The reporter said the case did not end there and the investigators found 155 doping cases involving Russian football players, which was just the “tip of the iceberg.” There was paperwork, testimony and other types of proof for at least 34 of the cases.

Russian football players training for the match against Spain on Sunday /VCG Photo

In response, FIFA said they have been investigating the cases for over a year and the investigation is still ongoing. No case has been prosecuted.

Russia has already made it into the round of 16 from Group A with two wins and one loss. They will be playing against Spain at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Sunday.