FIFA, UEFA reject anti-doping ´whereabouts´ rule

FIFA and UEFA on Tuesday formally rejected rules that allow anti-doping authorities to locate individual players for out of competition drugs testing.

The governing bodies of European and world football said in a joint statement that there were fundamental differences between an individual athlete and those involved in team sports that needed to be taken into account in the World Anti Doping Agency’s (WADA) ‘whereabouts’ rule.

“The governing bodies of FIFA and UEFA formally reject the stance taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) concerning the ‘whereabouts’ rule and, more specifically, the individual location of team-sport athletes,” the statement said.

“FIFA and UEFA want to stress the fundamental differences between an individual athlete, who trains on his own, on the one hand, and a team-sport athlete, who is present at the stadium six days out of seven, and thus easy to locate, on the other hand.”

“FIFA and UEFA therefore oppose the individual ‘whereabouts’ rule, and want to see it replaced by collective location rules, within the scope of the team and within the stadium infrastructure.”

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.

FIFA had already signalled its defiance of the requirement after an executive committee meeting last Friday by insisting on special treatment for footballers.