WADA seeks more equitable anti-doping code

"It cannot be that if you steal a loaf of bread or you rob a bank, you get the same kind of punishment."

Michel D'Hooghe, FIFA medical chief

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is revamping its code to allow more leniency in minor, accidental cases while getting tougher against serious drug cheats.

Soccer federation FIFA, long one of the code's toughest critics, and the international track and field federation offered guarded welcomes to the first draft of the revised document.

The 75-page code, which sets out anti-doping rules, procedures and sanctions, has been the centerpiece of the global fight against performance-enhancing drugs for four years.

Many sporting federations have called on WADA to be more flexible in sanctions and show leeway in cases which are clearly unintentional or could not have improved an athlete's performance.

While WADA officials stress the fundamentals of the code remain untouched, they acknowledge that adjustments can be made.

"There is a significant shift in terms of the way in which more minor cases can be dealt with. It gives it more flexibility," WADA director-general David Howman said in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Montreal. "It has more to do with differentiating major and minor breaches of doping."

WADA said the code was always intended to be a "living document" ready for change.

FIFA medical chief Michel D'Hooghe has been a critic for years of the code's unyielding sanctions and called for each case to be handled individually. The current WADA code calls for two-year suspensions for a first serious offense and a lifetime ban for a second.

"It is obvious that there has been a major step forward on the issue of individual case management," D'Hooghe said of the first revision. "It cannot be that if you steal a loaf of bread or you rob a bank, you get the same kind of punishment. A sanction has to be relevant to the crime, and that is what we are seeing more now."

The draft revision leaves the possible penalty for a first violation more open, ranging from a warning to two years, depending on the intent to cheat. Punishment for traffickers or doctors who supply doping substances can be increased to a lifetime exclusion for a first offense.

"This is a positive first step," said Chris Butler of the International Association of Athletics Federations, specifically applauding the possibility of increased sanctions if clear malicious intent is proven.

Howman said other federations reacted in a similar vein.