In a story that I could not have dreamed up myself, five North Korean women have tested positive for steroids. FIFA president Sepp Blatter is as shocked as I am.

“This is a shock,” Blatter said at a news conference. “We are confronted with a very, very bad case of doping and it hurts.”

FIFA hates scandal. They just won’t stand for it. Of course, the North Koreans have an explanation.

FIFA has already met with a North Korean delegation and heard arguments that the steroids were accidentally taken with traditional Chinese medicines based on musk deer glands to treat players who had been struck by lightning on June 8 during a training camp.

Musk deer glads? Accidental steroid use? Struck by lightning? This cannot be real. I must have been redirected to The Onion.

[ESPN, Getty]