U.S. soccer president tells CNN more misconduct cases reported but no definitive proof players are involved
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Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel and Dan Martin, Yahoo! Sports Contributors
WASHINGTON – U.S. soccer president Sunil Gulati told CNN Tuesday that more athletes are being investigated for violations of the U.S. Soccer’s drug and alcohol policies and that the governing body’s disciplinary bodies are “committed to doing better.”
“I think we have to acknowledge the problem. It is very, very serious in our sport. I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” Gulati said. “I see a number of cases of people who are under the effects of or who have violated our policies. And so we need to get to the bottom of this.
“We need to understand what happened. And then we need to make sure that we have the right type and level of sanction, and we need to do that by respecting the rule of law, as well as the rule of the sport.
“I think we have to work hard to do better. There is a lot we have to go through,” Gulati said.
Gulati made his first comments about the issues in a post on his personal Twitter account.
His comments come after a report Tuesday by Yahoo! Sports and CNN that showed dozens of U.S. soccer players had been suspended for testing positive for drugs. The report also showed the same type of suspensions for U.S. soccer officials.
Gulati said he was unaware of any U.S. players who have been suspended for being under the influence of performance-enhancing drugs.
“That is something that I’ve learned about with the U.S. Soccer Federation in the last few years,” Gulati said Tuesday. “When you’re the head of a federation, you have to be aware