Three members of West Germany's 1966 World Cup football team may have broken doping rules with cold treatment medicine, according to a letter seen by German magazine Der Spiegel.
The magazine is reporting in its current issue that historians at Berlin's Humboldt University uncovered a letter from Nov. 29, 1966, in which FIFA medical committee chairman Mihailo Andrejevic informed West German Athletics Federation president Max Danz of slight traces of an ephedrine-based medicine found in three players.
Ephedrine, a decongestant, is also a stimulant and was on FIFA's list of banned substances at the time.
''In the end, we only discovered very fine traces of a certain ephedrine-based medicine against colds in three players on the German team,'' wrote Andrejevic, who did not mention any values.
It is unclear if the doping breach was intentional or not. There were no sanctions made at the time.
FIFA conducted doping tests at the 1966 World Cup for the first time, but there were no reports of any positive tests.
West Germany lost to host England 4-2 in the final.
Humboldt's press office said it wasn't immediately aware of who had uncovered the letter.
