Drugs in Sport: One in five French footballers 'tests positive'

Random tests on the hair of French professional footballers and top-level rugby players have revealed frequent use of illegal, muscle-building steroids, it was announced yesterday.

One in five footballers tested, and one in six rugby players, showed signs of having used banned steroids – mostly the anti-ageing hormone DHEA. Similar, but less widespread, signs of steroid use were found in hair samples taken from athletes and cyclists. Drug tests on hair samples have no legal basis in French law or in sports rules but the French anti-drugs agency believes that its "hair opinion poll" points to a submerged culture of drug-taking in football and rugby – and possibly not just in France.

"Here is the proof that doping is not just something that happens in cycling," Pierre Bordry, the president of the Agence Française de Lutte contre le Dopage (AFLD) said yesterday.

The agency sought hair samples from 138 sports men and women last year. Traces of hormones such as DHEA, which builds muscle strength, vanish rapidly from urine and the blood but linger in the hair. Of the 32 professional footballers playing in the French First and Second divisions who were tested, seven showed clear signs of having used steroids. The 21.8 per cent "hit" rate was the highest in any sport tested.

Five out of 30 rugby players, 3 out of 32 athletes, 3 out of 17 amateur cyclists and four out of 37 professional cyclists had traces of banned steroids.

The anti-doping agency has no plans to reveal the names of the people who tested positive or to pass individual results to clubs or sports bodies. Bordry hopes that the evidence gathered will help to increase pressure for tougher anti-doping rules including the official use of hair samples. "This is a kind of opinion poll which leads us to the conclusion that doping does exist in these sports," Bordry said. "It's worrying but it will perhaps help us to widen our range of anti-doping tests."

The seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong – who hopes to make a comeback in this year's Tour – has revealed that he was asked to give a hair sample to the French anti-doping agency this week.

Armstrong, who retired three years ago, said on the social networking site Twitter: "Yet another 'surprise' anti-doping control. 24th one. This one from the French authorities. Urine, blood, and hair! Classic..."