The Premier League club are accused of failing to give testing officials accurate information about player whereabouts and are likely to attribute this to administrative error

Why are the club in trouble?

Manchester City have been charged by the Football Association with failing to give anti-doping officers accurate information about player whereabouts three times over a 12-month period.

Does that mean City’s players could face bans?

No. In individual sports, athletes are responsible for updating their details on the whereabouts system – and can be sanctioned for two years if they miss three tests in a 12-month period. In team sports the player’s club is responsible for keeping anti‑doping officials updated. The World Anti‑Doping Agency has no provision for team anti-doping rule violations, which is why City have been charged under FA rules and are facing a code of conduct charge instead.

Manchester City charged in relation to FA rules on anti-doping Read more

So what exactly did City do wrong?

All clubs are required to let the FA know by 10am on Monday the days each player will be training that week, the start and finish times of training, and the home address of the player and any address at which they regularly reside overnight. This administrative task allows UK Anti-Doping officials to know when they can turn up to carry out random tests. On three separate occasions City had inaccurate information about the whereabouts of their squad when anti-doping officers came to visit.

So what happens when a club have the wrong whereabouts details of players when the testers turn up?

It depends. If there are four players or less involved, the club isn’t penalised. Over five players, however, and they get a strike against them. Each missing player would also get a strike against them because they should have provided an alternative testing slot and location. Under FA rules, three strikes in 12 months would lead that player facing a ban – just like in other sports.

What happens next?

City have until 19 January to formally respond but they are not expected to contest the charge. They are likely to claim the violations were because of administrative errors. The case will be heard by a three-member disciplinary commission, which is expected to fine the club around £25,000. The chances of a points deduction or player suspension are zero. While the commission has some discretion, FA guidelines suggest a fine of £25,000 is an appropriate entry point for Premier League clubs for this particular breach of its rules.

How many tests does Ukad carry out in English football each year?

Around 2,000. That might sound like a lot – but when divided by the 92 league clubs and nine Women’s Super League teams it is less than 170 tests a month on average. And while it is the case that Premier League players are tested far more frequently than League Two sides, one report last year found around a third of Premier League footballers were not tested at all in 2015.

What is the FA’s response?

The FA points out that its anti-doping officers will usually choose players more likely to play – so testing a team’s third-choice goalkeeper makes far less sense than the star striker. It is also the case the Premier League is the only professional football league where players have to give notice of their whereabouts and can be visited by testers at home.

What else does the FA do around testing and player education?

The FA insists it has the most comprehensive drugs testing programme in world football. They also insist it is not the case players are only drug tested at training sessions – they are also tested at their home as well, even if they have been at training earlier in the day. The FA also pays for the UK Anti-Doping Agency to take blood from players for their athlete biological passport and stresses it has a widespread anti- doping education programme that includes a players’ essentials app, staff visits to clubs to talk through rules and regulations and wallet-sized reminder cards.

Are there any obvious flaws in the system?

The FA doesn’t require clubs to provide player whereabouts in the close season, while players only have to provide a residential address where they regularly reside overnight. That means from late May to July, players could be away on holiday and be taking banned substances with minimum chance of being caught.

What do the experts make of the Manchester City case?

According to Richard Ings, a respected former head of the Australian Anti-Doping Agency, there is a “gross inconsistency” when it comes to team sports in the Wada code. “If you are an individual athlete, the Wada code is prescriptive about your obligations for providing whereabouts information, and what the sanction will be if you don’t do it,” Ings says. “But the same obligations do not apply to professional athletes in some team sports. It’s not so much an FA issue, it’s a gross inconsistency in the Wada code between the obligations of individual professional athletes in individual sports and those who happen to be playing in team sports.”