Fancy Bears hack player data

The Football Association was last night seeking to ascertain the scale of the first Fancy Bears hack of antidoping records within the game.

Carlos Tevez, Juan Veron and Dirk Kuyt were named in leaked documents yesterday as three of 25 players permitted to use otherwisebanned medicines during the 2010 World Cup and there is no suggestion these have done anything wrong.

But The Fancy Bears’ latest hack also included an email from Jenni Kennedy, the FA’S head of integrity, to world governing body Fifa regarding four anti-doping cases in May.

The FA said it was “disappointed” the information had been leaked, given two of the cases were ongoing, relating to two non-league footballers.

Of those resolved, one showed Middlesbrough’s George Friend received triamcinolone through a “legitimate method”, with UK Anti-doping determining no rule breach had occurred. The other showed that Zesh Rehman, then of Gillingham, received a retrospective Therapeutic Use Exemption for prednisolone. It was prescribed due to urticaria, or hives, a bumpy and uncomfortable rash.

The FA said: “The Football Association is disappointed that strictly confidential information has been released into the public domain. The details of ongoing cases cannot be discussed or disclosed until due legal process has been completed.

“In the event that an anti-doping rule violation has been committed, full details will be published on the FA website.”

The Russian hackers also claimed there were 160 adverse analytical findings – or positive doping tests – in 2015 in football. Of the four UK failures, three were for cocaine and one for ecstasy.

Fancy Bears first hacked World Anti-doping Agency files in September, with Sir Bradley Wiggins forced to defend himself following the publication of his medical records which showed he had been given medication under the Therapeutic Use Exemption for asthma.