Thursday, March 26, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

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Battle of the Acronyms: UEFA & FIFA Stand Up To WADA

Posted: 25 Mar 2009 12:55 PM PDT



And the price may be quite high.

Since WADA implemented its ‘whereabouts’ campaign - it “requires athletes in all sports to give drug-testers three months’ notice of their whereabouts for one hour each day of the year” - the walls have been shaking with fury. It’s a pretty unapologetic intrusion into the lives of athletes and has been decried as such from all corners - some, many in Belgium, have even begun legal proceedings against the WADA’s conspiracy to take over the world. UEFA & FIFA have agreed and will not comply, but the cost may come in the form of Olympic football.

The gist of the two footy associations’ unhappiness looks something like this:

FIFA and UEFA say there are “fundamental differences” between an individual athlete training alone and one who spends six days a week training or playing with a team and is “thus easy to locate.”

The bodies also called for players to get a special exemption during their offseason, which typically runs from mid-May through the end of June. They said they “do not accept that controls be undertaken during the short holiday period of players, in order to respect their private life.”

How would you like to be on vacation and have to give your ‘whereabouts’ three months in advance? Nice, huh?

And it’s not as though football is a massive violator in this area, either. From 2004-08 an annual average of 25,000 players were pee tested. An average of 10 were found guilty of unpure training methods. Or 0.04%. This ain’t the Tour de France.

The problem comes, of course, in tournaments where WADA wields its overwhelming power, such as the Olympics. If a sport doesn’t comply with the standards WADA has set forth via the IOC, it’s bye bye Olympic participation.

“It’s in the IOC charter that any non-compliant federation can be removed from the Olympic program," he said before adding: “If you’re going to be way out in left field you’re going to be pretty lonely.”

But would this necessarily be such a bad thing? It’s already been discussed before and Olympic football really doesn’t make a great deal of sense in the grand scheme. FIFA already has a U-20 World Cup, which is essentially what they’re proposing the Olympics become. Or, if they’d like, FIFA could just create a U-23 World Cup (plus lifelines), which is precisely what the Olympics are now. One which doesn’t take place during the beginning of European domestic seasons. And really, wouldn’t putting to bed one of the largest issues permeating club v country do wonders for football relationships and maybe even extend some lives?

From a certain perspective, one could actually think of this as something of a “two birds, one stone” situation. Then again, Sepp Blatter is involved, which means there’s only one possible outcome: disaster.

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