Details on the drugs controversy surrounding the national soccer team remain sparse -- even after a press conference called by the Bermuda Council for Drugs Free Sport yesterday.

It was confirmed by Bermuda Football Association last week that one national team player had tested positive for an unnamed illicit drug.

And sources indicated that as many as nine others had violated the drugs policy in other ways, such as refusing to give a urine sample.

But how many have done what, the BCDFS refused to reveal in the conference at the Ministry of Youth and Sport yesterday.

The council did, however, disclose that all the Bermuda players who played in the two matches against the Cayman Islands earlier this month were drug free.

And they confirmed that players who had tested positive for drugs could continue playing sport domestically even while they were banned from representing Bermuda internationally -- provided they underwent counselling.

The council confirmed that marijuana appeared on the International Olympic Committee's list of banned substances, in apparent response to an argument expressed by Walton Brown last week.

Brown, who used to work for the National Drugs Commission, had claimed that Bermuda was forcing people away from sport by banning the use of marijuana, what he described as a recreational rather than performance-enhancing drug.

Austin Woods, chairman of the BCDFS, stressed that marijuana and sport did not mix.

"The classic case is that of the diver who used marijuana and hit the diving board,'' said Woods. "It may not be performance-enhancing, but it can still cause problems.'' The BCDFS called the conference because they were concerned by what had been aired in the media last week and wanted to "put the record straight''.

But Woods, Dr Derrick Binns, chief executive officer of the National Drug Commission, and Vaughn Mosher, managing director of Benedict Associates, the company which administers the tests for the BCDFS, avoided giving details on the soccer players.

And they refused to confirm or deny last week's TV reports that top defender Kentoine Jennings had been banned.

On last week's stories about the soccer team and drugs, Woods said: "It seems that the media has tried to pre-empt the procedure. In some instances they have not allowed the process to be completed.'' Mosher said the procedure involved taking a sample from an athlete and dividing it into an A and a B sample.

If the A sample tested positive, then the B sample -- bearing only a number, not a name -- was sent away for a test for confirmation.

But between the two tests, the athlete would not be allowed to represent Bermuda.

Woods added: "The athlete is notified that he has tested positive and then he has 15 days to protest it. During that time, we want to maintain each individual's human rights.'' Woods also stressed there had been no invalid tests and that procedures were being followed correctly.

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