European University Sports Association (EUSA) has been advocating for sport without doping for several years, and remains committed to the cause. Apart from taking part in EADIN project some years ago, we took part in ANTI-DIF conference about anti-doping in football, and are partner in Match Point project on anti-doping in Tennis.

Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in its representative office to the EU in Brussels, hosted the Anti-DIF project conference on Thursday 26th September 2019, project ran by the Norwegian Football Association. Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, Anti-DIF Anti-Doping in Football - Keep Football Clean - aims to understand and evaluate the current situation with regards to doping practices and anti-doping education, development of a value based education programme including development of guidelines for anti-doping coaches and an anti-doping code of conduct for individuals and clubs to sign up to.



The speaker of the opening session, Mr Marc Vouillamoz, UEFA head of Anti-Doping set the scene by describing the current state of play within UEFA’s structure. An overview of the AntiDIF project was then presented by Mr Paul Quantock, Norwegian FA Project Manager, followed by presentation of project’s European Survey Report on Football & Antidoping Measures.



Ms Abosede Ajayi, EUSA Medical Commission Chair then presented the European Anti-doping Initiative (EADIn) an EU co-funded project run originally in 2011 - 2012. This project, with multiple project partners, sought to develop a cohort of antidoping Junior Ambassadors via an education camp utilising different learning tools and styles. The aim was to create an anti-doping mindset within participants who would then go on to deliver peer-to-peer anti-doping education programmes within their own local contexts ranging from local clubs, universities, elite junior programmes.



The second part of the conference was a panel discussion entitled “Education as a tool to fight doping in grassroots football” moderated by Mr Alexandre Husting, Sport attaché, Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union. The panel members were Ms Cassandra Fernandez, Senior Project Manager Sport Conventions Division, Council of Europe, Mr Marc Vouillamoz, UEFA Head of Antidoping, Ms Tiziana Behgin, Member of the European Parliament & Mr Yves Le Lostecque, Head of Sport Unit, European Commission Directorate General for Education, Youth and Sport.



Closing Remarks were given by Ms Florence Lefebvre-Rangeon, Senior Manager, Government NADO Relations, World Anti-doping Agency (WADO), saying that the guiding principle in anti-doping should be that all athletes irrespective of non-elite versus elite, amateur versus professional status should be well educated before any testing occurs.

EUSA through its EUSA Institute is currently also involved in Erasmus+-funded anti-doping project Match point, lead by the Bulgarian Tennis Federation.