Anti-doping expert backs FIFA stand on testing

BERN, Switzerland (AP) -A leading anti-doping expert said Monday that football players should be exempt from doping controls during summer vacations.

The issue has caused a rift between FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency after football's governing body opposed parts of the new testing code which calls for elite athletes in all sports to be available for testing every day.

Martial Saugy, who is an adviser to both sides, said players could go untested in the offseason for at least two weeks without being able to dope untraced.

"Four weeks is maybe too long; two weeks is certainly acceptable,'' said Saugy, director of the WADA-accredited Swiss doping laboratory in Lausanne.

He said the fight against doping should not treat athletes like prisoners.

"The extreme solution is detrimental to the goal we have,'' Saugy told The Associated Press at a meeting of Switzerland's anti-doping agency. "One size fits all is not exactly the right thing in anti-doping. We must have a system that is fitting for purpose.''

WADA argues that surprise out-of-competition tests are essential for a credible anti-doping program. It published its new code after lengthy consultation with sports federations.

The code came into effect Jan. 1 and requires athletes to give drug-testers three months' notice of their training and competition location - or whereabouts - for one hour each day of the year.

But within weeks FIFA led a group of team sports, including basketball, ice hockey and volleyball, in calling for an exemption because teams train and play at predictable locations and can be found easily by testers.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter, a member of WADA's governing board, said players also had the right to privacy during their holidays.

Saugy - whose Lausanne lab has pioneered cycling's biological passport scheme for WADA and works with FIFA on medical research projects - urged the two sides to find a compromise that was "reasonable from a social, scientific and legal point of view.''

Negotiations began two weeks ago when WADA director general David Howman met with senior FIFA medical advisers at the football body's Zurich headquarters.

They agreed to FIFA's proposal for a pilot project this summer to target "at risk'' players for testing - those who are injured and could be tempted to dope or had previously failed controls.

The issue is likely to be discussed when WADA's executive committee and governing board meet May 9-10 in Montreal.