Every player tested for drugs at the World Cup in Brazil has been cleared of doping after more than 1,000 tests came back negative, FIFA’s medical committee announced yesterday.

Jiri Dvorak, FIFA’s chief medical officer, told a news conference at the Maracana yesterday that every player on each of the 32 competing teams - 736 players in total - had provided blood and urine samples.

Dvorak said 777 out-of-competition tests were conducted between March 1 and June 11 plus another 232, four from each of the first 58 matches played in Brazil, since the tournament kicked off on June 12, and all came back negative.

“We have not found any prohibitive substances... either prior or during competition,” Dvorak said.

FIFA said players from the four remaining teams left in the tournament would be subject to further random testing with the results expected before their team’s next game.

The samples have all been flown across the Atlantic Ocean to the WADA’s laboratory in Switzerland after WADA revoked the accreditation of the drug-testing facility in Rio for failing to comply with international standards.

The last time a player was caught doping at a World Cup was in 1994 when Argentina‘s Diego Maradona tested positive for ephedrin.

Soccer has long viewed itself as largely immune from the use of performance enhancing drugs which has badly tarnished other sports such as cycling.

Even yesterday, Michel D’Hoogie, the chairman of FIFA’s Medical Committee, said he did not think the use of performance enhancing drugs was widespread in the game.

“I will never say there is no doping in football, but I say there is no doping culture in football,” he said.