[MUSIC] [FOREIGN] >> Good day, Marc Vouillamoz. We're at UEFA in Leon near the Lac Léman. Could you introduce yourself please in just a few words? >> Welcome to UEFA, my name is Marc Vouillamoz. I've been working for 20 years at the UEFA. And I'm responsible for the anti-doping and medical program for 10 years. >> Thank you. Doping in football, if we have a look at this we have, for example, Sepp Blatter, president of the FIFA who told a football related magazine, that there are no substances that can turn a bad player into a good player, and a good player into a great player. And also told in 2001, I don't see how doping can be useful in football. Can we base ourselves on this, and to say that there are no problems in terms of doping in football. >> Well, I think we have to pay very close attention to any doping problems regardless of the sport. I think that football is not necessarily a sport that has been spared. It is possible that some substances, prohibited substances are taken to improve performance in football. So I think that we have to be very careful about the way we express the problem of doping in football. >> Now, when we look at this problem of doping there are many countries involved. You are an international organization, a European organization. Many different countries and cultures are in UEFA combating doping, is it becoming more harmonized? What's happening in that area? >> Well for football things are working quite well for a number of years now. Football has never run up against any major problems. When we ran tests in competition and out of competition, our testers have never had any limitations, or obstruction, from the part of government authorities, even when they have to transport samples, send samples from one country to another. So as far as football goes, no, no, major problems. I know that in other sports. By information that I've received from colleagues that their testers, and controllers, have run into problems during sampling and transfers of samples. But for football, no major problems. It's important, I think also, to explain that with the new 2015 anti-doping code, which aims to improve and extend coordination incorporation, between international federations, and the anti-doping agencies. We can see clearly that there's a willingness now to move forward and to cooperate. [FOREIGN] Now we, back in the year, back in the 2000, we had the Fuentes affair. >> I don't know other, there was a case of cyclists as well, for example, today's states are cooperating more, can we say, safely than say 15 years ago? >> Well I think that all stakeholders, in the fight against doping, are cooperating in a more open way with their partners. A number of international federations did not have a program that stressed cooperation. And I think everyone has learned lessons from the past. And everyone wants to move forward and have set up, a program which is effective and credible. >> In relations with states, does UEFA have enough clout to move towards harmonization of legislation in this area? >> Well I think that the institution that has that sort of clout, or that duty, is the world anti-doping agency, with it's code, has as it's main purpose the harmonization of procedures carried out, in all sports and across all countries. It's clear that UEFA, is doing its best through its networks. And that it is doing its best to make things move forward, and to develop, in harmony, and in a cooperative fashion. >> But this means then that, in terms of the WADA anti-doping procedures, this corresponds to what UEFA would like to be doing. >> Well, yes, we find it entirely suitable. I think that the World Code, as I said a little while ago, has as its main goal to produce a level playing field for all athletes, in all sports across all continents. That is what UEFA is seeking. In other words, all players, all teams participating in our competitions, should do so with the same rules, applying the same rules, whether we're talking about the sports side of things, or in terms of the taking of substances. >> Now, what about the role of UEFA, where does it fit within FIFA, international agencies, the WADA? What is the special role of UEFA in other words? >> Well UEFA focuses mainly on UEFA competitions, UEFA events. So we have an education program, an anti-doping control program, which applies to all UEFA events regardless of the level of competition. And here we often talk about the anti-doping program in the Europe League and the Champions League. Yes, we carry out a significant number of tests. But also in women's competitions, in junior competitions, and in the foot style competitions. So no competitions can exist without a program which is tailor made to that event or that competition. >> Now, an important stakeholder of course is the major clubs, do they incorporate in this fight against doping? >> Well, we have seen changes in the last 10 years, as I said, the program goes back to 2005 at UEFA. Remember we set up a whereabouts program for the teams in the champions league. Well, the first year it was fairly complicated, we had to be very strict, and rigorous, when we imposed this system. But afterwards, it became a procedure that was entirely accepted, and quite legitimate. >> Now, how have things changed in this? We talked about prevention, repression. Do you think that the effectiveness or efficiency is going up? Is increasing? Do you have any data, any statistics, about the improvement of what is being done? >> Well, the number of tests, and I would say, is increasing, it's on the rise. Because the number of UEFA competitions is increasing. We also want to have out of competition tests, because we want to carry out blood tests. We want to put in place a steroidal passport, and to reach these goals, the number of checks automatically is going to have increase. The tests will have to go up, we have to stay in proportion with the number of matches, but the trend is on the up. Now is it effective you asked. Well, that's a difficult question to answer, because if you look at the wider statistics, the number of positive results in football is very low. We're talking about one, two, maybe three cases per year in UEFA competitions maximum. One, two, or three, often these are positive results for substances such as cannabis, cocaine, recreational drugs, shall we say. I think it's very difficult to say that it is because the UEFA program, has a deterrence level, which is such, that it is going to allow us to, in the end, have few cases which are positive. Or are there some substances which still cannot be detected, methods which, for the anti-doping laboratories are impossible to detect certain substances, difficult to say. The analytical methods are becoming more and more sophisticated. I think that the gap between those who want to cheat, and the anti-doping laboratories, tends to be reduced over the last three years. >> What about the steroidal profiles, steroidal passport that represents progress, you are doing some random targeting, how does it work? >> Well, the steroidal passport, let me explain this. We're not longer going to be in a situation where we are a bit vague about the teams, and players, because it will make it possible for us to follow, to track over time the values, or the profile of an athlete or the team, if we want to look at all of the players on the team. So the test will bring together values and this profile. And they will allow us to see whether there are some differences, in the individual values of these players. So it's going to be much more refined, much more targeted as a method for detecting doping. >> Now to do this are you cooperating with a laboratory? I believe it's the anti-doping laboratory in Los An-, >> Yes our partner, is the, which will be checking these steroidal passports for UEFA, is the Swiss lab for doping analysis. They have a lot of experience and have been at the forefront of anti-doping in Europe. We're working in cooperation with them. And it is that laboratory which will alert us, when they've entered the values in the passport, whether it would be worthwhile to go and check something if there's some suspicion, for example. If a player has to be checked, or a team for that matter, well that has to do with checking controls, tests. But upstream of this, are you doing any work on, in the area of prevention? >> Prevention is absolutely critical. UEFA, ever since 2005, has invested a huge amount of effort in education. We have specific programs for youth, my coworkers go in the field, and they send out a message of prevention to all of the players in the final tournaments. So we can reach out to between 1,000 and 1,500 young players per year. And these are players who one day will probably be playing on the major teams. That's one aspect of the program. The second aspect of the program is to make available on the UEFA website, to make available information about anti-doping prevention. There's a specific anti-doping module on uefa.org which will allow everyone, players, trainers, doctors, to go, and find information, and to be able to use these tools. To use these tools to organize special sessions prevention, prevention sessions with their players. Now, over the longer course in terms of the training of doctors and trainers. Is it possible to think in terms of acclimatization or an obligation to have this kind of training? >> It's a very interesting question because we began this process. We had a training program for European medical doctors which is called the Football Doctor Education Programme which is made up of three modules. The last module that we just finished up and delivered in May this year contains the overall anti-doping issue, and the awareness that we want the team doctors to have. And to a message that we want them to pass on to the players. We have trained one doctor per national team. And the idea is that this program is going to spread. And that we will make available the tools, the information to these physicians, these medical doctors, so that they can organize courses at the international level, so that this spreads out and is extrapolated in this way. We also have a manual that we've published with a major publishing house, a specialized one, which will also make it possible to disseminate this knowledge. >> Is it possible to measure the effectiveness of prevention programs? >> Well, that's a very complex thing to do. It's complicated because it's based really on feedback from the medical doctors, also on final tournaments, feedback from the players who participate in these training sessions. The feedback is always positive. But does it always make it possible for us to adapt our own means and resources? Certainly people are saying it is useful. But there's no indication for us that we should go in a particular direction to improve the message or clarify the message in certain areas. >> So, to conclude, do you have anything to say about what progress could still be achieved in terms of anti-doping strategies in football? What would you say? >> Well, it's a vast field of work. And the job is not done in football, we always want to remain and be at the cutting edge, cutting edge of any development, cutting edge in terms of the organization of the events or the competitions themselves, about the competence level of our officials also want to be. We want to have an anti-doping program, which is as effective as possible, because we do not wish to have a sport, which becomes a problem in the area of doping. We want to defend sporting values, the ethical values of sport and football specifically. [MUSIC]
