West Ham hit with FA charge in relation to anti-doping rules

The English Football Association (FA) announced on Tuesday it's charged West Ham United with a breach of anti-doping rules, specifically for a violation of "Regulation 14(d)," regarding the submission of accurate information about the whereabouts of players.

The FA stated: "It is alleged the club (West Ham) failed to ensure its 'Club Whereabouts' information was accurate on three occasions within 12 months."

The FA does not consider a breach of Regulation 14(d) to be an anti-doping rule violation, and instead classifies it as a misconduct. The breach relates to a failure to provide club information about details like training dates, start and finish times of training, the addresses of training locations, and the address where a requested player "regularly resides overnight."

A spokesman for West Ham responded to the FA's charge, as quoted by the Guardian: "The breach relates to administrative oversights on the FA's whereabouts system, for example a player's address had been registered and the house number digits transposed, and the club will be responding to the FA in due course.

"We would like to make it clear that the breach is a club administrative matter and does not concern any of our players."

Manchester City was hit with a similar charge in January 2017, which the club did not contest. West Ham has until Feb. 27 to respond to the charge.