Anti-doping passport will take time: Blatter

October 29, 2009

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said Thursday that the introduction of a biological passport to stamp out doping in football would take time.

Speaking after a meeting between world football’s governing body and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Blatter said that discussions had been “positive”.

“The meeting has developed in a positive sense, we are working together fighting againt doping and trying to put together all our assets,” said Blatter.

“Fighting doping is a prerogative and something very special for FIFA and we will go on on that. There is (doping) but not so much (in football).”

A biological passport is designed to keep permanent record of an athlete’s blood and urine parameters to detect any suspicious changes, instead of relying on random tests alone.

FIFA and WADA have not always seen eye to eye on anti-doping measures.

Blatter refused to force footballers to be available 365 days a year for out-of-competition testing, a measure introduced this year for all elite athletes affiliated to WADA.

FIFA’s chief medical officier Jiri Dvorak insisted that the introduction of a biological passport was only at the project stage at the moment.

“It’s a work in progress, it’s something which is a long term project,” Dvorak said.

“33,000 procedures are done every year around the world, the incidence of positive cases is 0.3 percent on social drugs like marihuana and cocaine, and the incidence of anabolic steroids is 0.03percent, it’s very low but still we have to do the controls.”

ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP)