Ex-France doctor claims suspect samples in 1998 team

A former doctor with the French football team has claimed that several members of the France squad provided suspect blood samples just before their 1998 World Cup win.

In an interview in the daily Le Parisien yesterday, the day before his book The Implosion is due to be released, Dr Jean-Pierre Paclet lifted the lid on what he claims is an open secret.

“Blood tests revealed anomalies for several Bleus just before the 1998 World Cup,” he said. “You can have strong suspicions when you know the clubs where certain players played, notably those in the Italian league.

“It’s public knowledge that there were practices which were borderline, to say the least, at Juventus at that time,” Dr Paclet said of the former club of French stars Zinedine Zidane and Didier Deschamps.

Dr Paclet, the French team doctor from 2004 to 2008, continued: “I’ve invented nothing. Having a high hematocrit level did not prove that they took EPO. As there was no proof we didn’t bother them.”

He added: “Reasons of State carried the day. It was stronger than everything else. In addition that year (economic) growth was at stake for the country... nevertheless it can’t be said that if we had pursued the tests we would have found proof.”

Dr Jean-Marcel Ferret, the France team doctor at the time of their World Cup win, said he was “flabbergasted” by the allegationss.

“We found nothing,” he told Le Parisien. “There were two slight anomalies concerning the level of hematocrit. But they were linked to tiredness from the league.

“Nobody forced me to do anything. My conscience is clear.”