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FIFA doping plans look unlikely to appease WADA [Tue Sep 13th, 2005]
Marrakech, Morocco (Reuters) - FIFA and WADA seem no nearer resolving their differences, despite FIFA president Sepp Blatter's insistence that football's governing body was leading the fight against doping in world sport.
Blatter told delegates at FIFA's 55th Congress that FIFA had revised its statutes and dropped its insistence on a six-month ban for first offenders to bring FIFA into line with the World Anti-Doping Agency's code of sanctions for doping offenders.
However, although FIFA publicly signed a declaration of intent to fully endorse WADA's code in Paris last year, the sticking point remains WADA's insistence that a two-year ban must be imposed on first offenders and FIFA have not yet signed on WADA's dotted line.
Until FIFA agree to that, which seems unlikely, the two Swiss-based organisations will almost certainly end up facing each other at the Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) in Lausanne.
OLYMPIC THREAT
WADA chairman Dick Pound, like Blatter, a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has said that unless all 35 international federations agree to the WADA code, they risk being thrown out of the Olympic Games.
But a bullish Blatter told delegates from 205 of FIFA's 207 member associations that a footballer's first offence would now be dealt with by anything from a warning to a life ban, making no reference to WADA's insistence on a mandatory two-year ban.
Blatter said: "We cannot do more than be leaders in the fight against doping. What more can we do, we are doing more than anyone else as it is. Last year we carried out 22,000 doping tests -- more than any other federation. Athletics was next with 19,000 and the rest far behind.
"We have changed our statutes and adapted our rules to WADA and I think we are code compliant. But if there are any more uncertainties and Dick Pound is not satisfied and wants to take us to CAS, OK, well if that happens, so be it.
"We have taken the right approach to work with WADA."
Blatter said that FIFA would put 250 of its affiliated doctors at WADA's disposal to help the agency carry out its duties, and insisted that FIFA and WADA can work together.
"When I get back to Zurich I am going to speak to Dick Pound, tell him what we have done and ask him to bury the hatchet. We have nothing against them."
Blatter has insisted for months that each case has to be dealt with on its merits and that blanket bans are unreliable under Swiss law.
But while WADA continue to insist on the two-year ruling, it seems difficult to see how a resolution can be reached.
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