Football faces Olympic ban

Football is still at risk of being kicked out of this summer's Athens Olympics after Dick Pound, head of the World Anti-Doping Agency, stressed today that the sport would not be allowed to do any special deals on its drugs rules.

Pound was trying to set up an urgent meeting with Sepp Blatter in Paris after the FIFA president indicated last night that football might not sign the new WADA code standardising sanctions for drug offenders across all sports.

Football, which has a reputation for being softer on players who test positive than other sports, is not happy to sign up to the code's twoyearbans for serious drug offenders and wants to deal with every positive test on an individual basis.

There have also been suggestions that FIFA is not happy that WADA would have the power to appeal against any rulings it makes.

But the straight-talking Pound said: "I have explained that we can't make separate deals with any federations. The code is the code."

Blatter was expected to sign the code at a FIFA meeting in Paris at the end of this week. If today's talks with Pound fail to reach an agreement, there is a real danger that football will not be part of the Athens Games in August.