 |
|
Pound praises FIFA over doping ruling [Fri Sep 16th, 2005]
Montreal (AFP) - Dick Pound, the head of world anti-doping agency WADA, praised football world governing body FIFA for not contesting its right to appeal controversial doping decisions.
"One of the really bright notes for us is that there was no dispute within FIFA about WADA's right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in relation to doping matters," said Pound.
"That's one of the major tools that we have at our disposal, the right to monitor what is done with positive cases and if we do not think that the code has been properly applied then we have our independent right to appeal.
"I think that sometimes people get confused about the so called automatic two year ban for a first offence. It's not an automatic two years. That's what would happen if there are no extenuating or special circumstances.
"But the sanctions can vary from zero if there is no fault to two years if there is fault and there are possibilities for reducing the penatly by half if there is no significant fault and also depending on the particular substances.
So we're pretty close on that."
FIFA president Sepp Blatter insisted last week that the governing body's doping procedures were now in line with those of WADA.
Although FIFA signed a declaration of intent to fully endorse WADA's code last year, the sticking point had remained WADA's insistence that a two-year ban must be imposed on first time offenders.
Blatter told delegates at FIFA's 55th Congress in Morocco that FIFA had revised their statutes and dropped their insistence on a six-month ban for first offenders.
But Blatter said that FIFA's sanctions would now go from a simple warning to a life ban, and reiterated his view that cases should be treated on an individual basis.
Blatter said that they now intended to give WADA the possibility of appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) when all other procedures had failed.
Pound had said that unless all 35 international federations agreed to their code they risked being prevented from competing in the Olympic Games.
News headlines from around the world.