WADA threatens FIFA with Olympic axe

The World Anti Doping Agency (WADA) President Dick Pound, seen here in 2005, said football faces the axe from the Olympic Games if FIFA fails to comply with the world anti-doping code as set out by WADA

Football faces the axe from the Olympic Games if FIFA fails to comply with the world anti-doping code as set out by the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), it's president Dick Pound announced.

Last month the Court of Arbirtration for Sport (CAS) decreed that FIFA's code did not comply with WADA's but football's world governing body has long resisted calls to bring its doping regulations into compliance with WADA rules.

WADA's executive committee is due to meet this weekend in Montreal and is expectinng to hear confirmation from FIFA that it effect an about-turn.

"The CAS opinion has confirmed that in at least eight portions of the mandatory sections of the code, the FIFA rules were non compliant," said Pound.

"The world antidoping code is a cornerstone of the fight against doping in sport.

"So there is a whole bunch of very bad things that will happen and, frankly, I'm quite confident that FIFA, now that it has a chance to review and study this advisory opinion we got from CAS, understands precisely what it has to do."

WADA cannot kick football out of the Olympics but Pound said that with the agency's role in advising both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and governments, FIFA would be treading a tightrope if it failed to adopt the code.

"It is up to them (IOC and governments) to employ the necessary sanctions," added Pound. "And that could go as far as excluding football from the Olympics."