FIFA wants soccer players to be an exception to certain anti-doping rules which fueled its dispute with the World Anti-Doping Agency.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter Friday said it was not necessary for soccer players to provide thourough details of their whereabouts as requested by the new World Anti-Doping Agency effective on Juanuary 1 this year.
The code requires athletes in all sports to give drug-testers three months' notice of their whereabouts for one hour each day of the year.
Football's world governing body believes players should be tested six days a week at their club's training ground and freed of the obligation while on holiday.
"It is not a question of not fighting doping but one should not really go for a witch-hunting because witch-hunting has never led to a positive result," Blatter said after a meeting FIFA executive committee.
The FIFA executive stated its belief that "only the whereabouts of a team and not those of individual players have to be provided for the purposes of doping control".
Blatter said FIFA has teamed up with international federations in other team sports, including basketball, volleyball, ice hockey and rugby union, to clarify the rules with WADA.
He said WADA refused to made any exception but they still wait for the answer.
WADA president John Fahey has repeatedly insisted that no changes will be made to the whereabouts testing rule so soon after the revised WADA Code was introduced.
(Xinhua News Agency March 21, 2009)
