Former sports minister's stunning admission casts shadow over France's 1998 World Cup triumph

France's former Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet has admitted that surprise anti-doping tests on the France national team were suspended in the build-up to the 1998 FIFA World Cup, contradicting sworn testimony she gave to a French Senate committee in 2013.

According to a report by Mundo Deportivo, the revelation came in the documentary Zidane: The Factory of a Legend, broadcast by French television channel BFMTV, which examines France's triumphant 1998 World Cup campaign led by Zinedine Zidane.

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Buffet, who served as sports minister from 1997 to 2002, acknowledged that after a surprise doping control during France's training camp in Tignes in 1997 provoked strong objections from players, coach Aime Jacquet and the French Football Federation, no further unannounced tests were carried out before the World Cup.

"And after the World Cup, we resumed the fight against doping," Buffet said in the documentary, adding that the instruction to halt the tests "was probably passed down through ministerial offices."

Her admission directly contradicts evidence she gave under oath to a Senate committee in 2013, when she said: "We never gave any directives to that effect."

Alain Garnier, the doctor sent by the Ministry of Sport to conduct the original surprise tests, said he was verbally instructed that he was "no longer to disturb Les Bleus until the World Cup" and that there would be "no more surprise controls".

Garnier claimed the directive originated from Matignon, the official residence of the French prime minister.

When asked about Garnier's account in the documentary, Buffet did not dispute it.

"If Dr Garnier says that, then it must be true," she said, describing the decision as "a step backwards in the fight against doping."

The surprise tests conducted at Tignes produced negative urine samples, but players and officials complained that the operation disrupted the team's preparations.

Buffet has previously said she came under "all kinds of pressure" during her time in office.

Her latest remarks have reignited debate over the circumstances surrounding France's home World Cup triumph in 1998, when Zidane inspired Les Bleus to their maiden world title, and raised fresh questions over the suspension of anti-doping controls in the lead-up to the tournament.

There is no evidence that France's players failed any doping tests or committed anti-doping violations during the 1998 World Cup. The controversy centres on the decision to suspend surprise testing before the tournament, a move Buffet has now publicly acknowledged after denying it for more than a decade.