FIFA, UEFA reject WADA drug-testing rule

The two most powerful bodies in football and the World Anti-Doping Agency have a difference of opinion

FIFA, UEFA reject WADA drug-testing rule

Tension escalated between the two most powerful bodies in football and the World Anti-Doping Agency in a dispute over out-of-competition drug testing.

Global governing body FIFA and European authority UEFA called on WADA to reconsider its whereabouts rule in effect asking for special privileges for football players to avoid the 365-days-a-year testing standard met by athletes in other sports. But WADA director general David Howman said the rule which took effect on January 1 could not be negotiated until the end of the year and football would have to fall into line.

"The rules are in place and if you don't follow the rules then, of course, we have to report that information to our board," Howman told the Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The whereabouts rule forms part of the 2009 WADA code and was enforced after lengthy consultation with international sports federations, including FIFA.

It requires all elite-level athletes named in registered testing pools to give drug-testers three months' notice of their location for one hour each day. But FIFA and UEFA say there are "fundamental differences" between an individual athlete training alone and one who spends six days a week training or playing with a team and is "thus easy to locate."

In a statement after Tuesday's UEFA Executive Committee meeting, the football authorities teamed up to ask WADA to reconsider the rule "in a spirit of collaboration in the fight against doping."

More than 25,000 doping tests are carried out in world football annually, with an average of 10 players testing positive each year from 2004-08. They also called for players to get an exemption during their offseason, which typically runs from mid-May through the end of June.

FIFA and UEFA said they "do not accept that controls be undertaken during the short holiday period of players, in order to respect their private life."