Blatter: Drugs not an issue with Foe

FIFA president Sepp Blatter today rejected any suggestion that Marc-Vivien Foe’s death may have been linked to drugs.

Blatter said that although the results of the post-mortem were still not known, he was personally sure that doping was not involved with the death of the Cameroon midfielder.

Foe, who played for Manchester City on loan last season, collapsed during Cameroon’s Confederations Cup semi-final against Turkey in Lyon on Thursday night and died shortly afterwards.

Blatter said: “The suggestion is a cynical one but let us have the result of the French coroner and then we will see.

“However as all the doping controls we have made in this competition have come back negative I am sure there will be no matter of drugs in this case.

“There are 250million people playing football throughout the world and these things have happened before and it is very sad.”

Blatter added that tomorrow’s final between Cameroon and France will be used to pay tribute to Foe, who was 28.

The teams will be asked to stand in a circle before kick-off, alternating a French player and a Cameroon player, for a period of silence before the national anthems. The Cameroon players will all have Foe’s name on their shirts.

Blatter said he wanted the teams to try their hardest despite the tragedy.

He added: “If the Cameroon team had told me yesterday that they did not want to play that would have been okay but they said they wanted to play for the memory of Foe.

“Their shirts will be identified with Foe’s name and I want this to be a real match and I am confident the French team will want to win as well.

“My appeal is to remember him, and when the game starts then football should be at the centre and no longer the sadness.”

The winners will claim a £1.5million cash prize but it is expected that whichever team triumphs on the pitch they will donate at least part of the money to Foe’s family.