The team was eliminated in the first round after losses to the United States and Sweden and a draw with Colombia.īlatter said the North Korean federation "wrote to us and they presented their excuses. The last doping case at a major event came at the men's 1994 World Cup in the United States, when Diego Maradona was kicked out after testing positive for a cocktail of banned substances.įIFA has already met with a North Korean delegation and heard arguments that the steroids were accidentally taken to treat players after a lightning strike on June 8 during a training camp in North Korea.ĭefenders Song Jong Sun and Jong Pok Sim tested positive for steroids after North Korea's first two group games and were suspended for the last match. Despite the cases at the Women's World Cup, "doping really is a marginal, fringe phenomenon in football," Blatter said. The Colombian Football Federation said she had hormonal treatment that led to a failed drug test, the first doping case in the history of the Women's World Cup.įIFA annually spends some $30 million on 35,000 doping tests. In late June, Colombia's reserve goalkeeper Yineth Varon was provisionally suspended for failing an out-of-competition test before the World Cup. The case will be taken up by FIFA's disciplinary committee. We would have found it with the others too." "It is not systemic, because not all of the players took it. They said they had a serious lightning accident with several players injured and they gave it as therapy," said Michel D'Hooghe, chief of FIFA's medical committee. "The North Korean officials said they didn't use it to improve performance. Friedemann Vogel/Getty ImagesDefender Song Jong Sun tested positive for steroids after North Korea's first two group games and was suspended for the last match.Ī North Korean delegation told Blatter and the head of FIFA's medical committee on Saturday that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on the deer glands.