FIFA defies WADA over anti-doping tests

World football’s governing body FIFA on Friday defied the World Anti-Doping Agency’s key demands for out-of-competition drugs testing by insisting on special treatment for footballers.

FIFA maintained after an executive committee meeting that it wanted exceptions for football and other team sports, including exemptions from testing for one day per week and during holiday periods.

It also advocated limits on the ‘whereabouts’ rule that allows anti-doping authorities to locate athletes daily for testing, insisting in a statement that only the location of a team, and not of individual players, should be provided.

WADA director general David Howman and president John Fahey last month ruled out immediate changes to out-of-competition drugs testing for athletes, underlining that the rules were new and softer than those used before.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter revealed that football’s governing body was sending a new letter “today” to WADA on the issue.

“We’re surprised that through certain statements there won’t be exceptions whatever the sport. The team sports are in total agreement,” he added.

“It’s not a question of not fighting doping, but one should not have a witchhunt.”

Since the beginning of January, elite athletes are required to give notice of their location on a chosen one-hour period each day, seven days a week, under the world anti-doping code.

European football chief Michel Platini has criticised the ‘whereabouts’ rule and suggested a 20-day ‘holiday’ for football players during their off-season break.

But during a seminar in Lausanne on February 24, Fahey said that amounted to a “part-time” approach that could jeopardise the integrity of the anti-doping test process.

In a letter to Howman, FIFA’s chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said Team Sports Federations and the International Rugby Board had agreed at a meeting in December that they could not put the WADA Code for 2009 into operation from the very beginning.

“It is the general feeling that we have to adapt step by step,” he added in the letter dated February 16, released by FIFA.

Copies were also sent to international basket ball (FIBA), volleyball (FIVB), baseball (IBAF) and ice hockey (IIHF) federations, as well as the International Olympic Committee.