FIFA reaches deal with anti-doping authorities

MUNICH: FIFA President Sepp Blatter said on Monday that football's world governing body had reached a long-awaited agreement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on punishing doping cases in football.   

Blatter said he would ask the FIFA Congress, taking place here on Wednesday and Thursday, to approve moves to bring FIFA's regulations concerning doping into line with the WADA code.      

He said FIFA's Executive Committee, the federation's decision-making body, agreed in a one-day meeting on Sunday ahead of the World Cup that it could finally adopt the WADA code covering other sports.         

"I am delighted," Blatter said.

"We will have to amend one article of our code. What is important is that the principle of individual case management will be upheld," he added.          

Blatter said there was now agreement with WADA that each positive test concerning a player would be considered on a case-by-case basis, meaning that footballers would not face the automatic minimum two-year ban that WADA imposes on sports such as athletics.   

WADA has threatened to push for football to be thrown out of the Olympics unless it adopted the code. The World Cup finals kick off on Friday with host nation Germany taking on Costa Rica in the opening match.