Former French sports minister Marie-George Buffet has acknowledged that surprise doping tests on the France squad were stopped before the 1998 World Cup, when the hosts went on to win the tournament.
The admission has revived questions about the circumstances surrounding France’s triumph after the team’s preparations were reportedly affected by a decision not to carry out any further unannounced tests until the end of the competition.
According to a report by Mundo Deportivo, Buffet made the comments in the documentary Zidane: The Making of a Legend. Her account contrasts with evidence she gave under oath to a French Senate committee in 2013, when she denied that her ministry had issued instructions to suspend surprise doping controls.
Buffet said the decision followed an initial unannounced test which caused anger within the France camp. After that incident, she said, it was decided that no further surprise tests would be conducted before the World Cup concluded.
Alain Garnier, the doctor sent by the Ministry of Sports to carry out the controls at the time, supported that version of events. He said he had been instructed not to “disturb the French team again until the World Cup”.
Garnier added that the instruction had been delivered to him verbally, rather than through a formal written order.
Asked about his account, Buffet did not challenge it. “If Dr Garnier says that, it must be true,” she said.
She described the decision as “a step backwards in the fight against doping”.
The comments have prompted renewed scrutiny in France because they appear to conflict directly with Buffet’s earlier testimony before the Senate. In 2013, she stated under oath that her ministry had issued “no instructions” to stop surprise doping tests.
The issue has attracted widespread attention because the suspension came immediately before the tournament on home soil, which ended with France lifting the World Cup. The team, known as Les Bleus, secured the title during a campaign that remains one of the most significant achievements in French football.
Buffet’s latest remarks do not, in themselves, establish that any France player committed a doping offence. However, they have raised fresh questions about the testing arrangements in place around the national team before and during the 1998 competition.
The controversy centres on why the additional tests were halted, who authorised the decision and why the account now being given differs from the evidence provided to the Senate committee.
The admission has therefore reopened debate over the environment surrounding France’s World Cup victory, particularly the decision to stop surprise controls after the first test had triggered a negative reaction inside the squad.
