Club players are members of the lowest NADA test group and do not have the same obligations as, for example, track and field- athletes, cyclists, skiers, weight lifters etc. As such, they have to inform *their club* about their whereabouts (for unnanounced testing), but *not* the antidoping authorities themselves, as higher grouped athletes do.
This (at least in germany) doesn't apply for members of the german national team, who as such are in a higher "NADA test group". (this may either differ from country to country, or for foreign players, i don't know which).
The subject came up when Testers didn't find Thiago for a test while he was being treated in a spanish hospital. He himself and the club weren't sanctioned because they hadn't broken the rules - had it been Müller or another one of the german team players, it would have been a different story.
Still the question remains how often football players are tested outside the routine checks after the matches. Also: cyclists are possibly the most intensively tested sports group of all.Yet cycling is, if what some insiders tell when there's no microphone around is true, still one of the most doping infested one.
