FIFA to examine anti-doping passport with WADA

FIFA president Sepp Blatter said here that football's governing body would discuss its plans to introduce the biological passport for players with anti-doping chiefs today. "The biological passport is what we want to do and we want to take a step ahead in the fight against doping," Blatter said yesterday at a debate on sports and doping.

"We are working on that. Tomorrow we will have meetings with the people from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)," he added. The meeting is due to take place at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. 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.

However, the exact format of FIFA's proposed passport and testing regime was unclear. FIFA and WADA have frequently been at loggerheads over anti-doping measures. Blatter has rejected making footballers available for random out-of-competition drugs testing 365 days a year, a measure introduced this year for athletes in all sports under the world anti-doping code.