MUNICH, Germany - Bowing to pressure to enact stricter doping penalties, FIFA
will adopt minimum two-year suspensions yet still allow national soccer
associations to reduce bans for special circumstances.
FIFA executive committee member Chuck Blazer said Sunday his organization is
compliant "on paper" with the World Anti-Doping Agency's guidelines. WADA had
pressured FIFA to get tougher.
"In principle, we agree to the two-year suspensions, which in some cases
could be more or could be less," Blazer told The Associated Press. "We still
maintain individual case management."
The recommendation from the executive committee of soccer's world governing
body must be adopted later this week by the FIFA Congress. It is designed to
resolve the dispute with WADA, which has accused soccer of not complying with
its doping code. All governing bodies must abide by the code or risk being
removed from the Olympics.
WADA has complained that FIFA's bans of six months to two years were
insufficient and threatened to recommend that the International Olympic
Committee throw soccer out of the Summer Games.
FIFA's move, in essence, removes the six-month ban as a minimum suspension
and replaces it with a two-year sanction. However, it also allows federations to
reduce that penalty.
The change comes nearly six weeks after the Court of Arbitration for Sport in
Switzerland issued a nonbinding decision that soccer wasn't fully compliant with
the code. FIFA adopted the code in 2004, but feuded with WADA over the six-month
minimum ban.
"The use of drugs in our sport is extraordinary, not normal," Blazer said.
"We consider all cases need to be assessed individually."
WADA chief Dick Pound had indicated a two-year minimum ban was essential to
consider soccer in line with his organization's rules.
Blazer defended FIFA's doping policies, saying soccer has been at the
forefront of testing for illegal substances.
"If anyone thought that we were not doing what we had agreed to, WADA would
have been here screaming their heads off," he said.
