ZURICH: An Anti-Doping in Sports Consensus Meeting was held today at the Home of FIFA in Zurich. The conference, hosted by FIFA in collaboration with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and various international sports federations under the heading ‘Time for change’, was attended by top experts from various professional backgrounds, who exchanged ideas, established the current position on a range of issues and discussed new strategies and methods of fighting doping in sport.
One of the main topics of conversation was the biological profiling of athletes, launched at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013. The profile, which comprises both the haematological parameters in the blood and the steroid profile in urine, is regarded as the best method of detecting the use of performance-enhancing drugs. FIFA are among the pioneers in this area and will continue to promote the development of this new strategy at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™.

The cost efficiency of the fight against doping was also discussed in depth. “Approximately 300-400 million US dollars are invested in the fight against doping in sport every year,” said FIFA’s Chief Medical Officer, Prof. Dvorak. “The question of whether this money is invested efficiently is justified. We’re therefore discussing potential cost-effective and deterrent strategies. The time may be right for the development of a customised system which takes account of the risk assessment in each different type of sport and also has to be cost efficient”.

The full article is available on FIFA.com, direct links below.

Note to broadcasters: 

Downloadable footage material and sound bites from key speakers at the conference will be available soon on The Newsmarket.

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