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MONTREAL : The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) denied on Friday that their drug testing policies were an invasion of privacy or contravened personal rights after accusations by Britain's Professional Players Federation (PPF).
The PPF, set up in 1991 to represent professional sportsmen and women in the United Kingdom, claimed the rules for random testing were too restrictive and threatened WADA with legal action.
PPF president Simon Taylor had said on Thursday: "A player could be called from his room at three o'clock in the morning before a big match. Footballers have two weeks holiday, four maximum each year.
"They don't want to get up early every morning to tell someone 'I'm going to be at the beach between nine and 10 o'clock'."
WADA said in a statement on Friday: "There are no suggestions or indications that the rules on random testing by anti-doping bodies constitute an invasion of privacy or contravene other personal rights."
WADA also said they regretted the fact that the PPF had based their comments on a preliminary document which "was not the one currently being looked at by the WADA executive committee".
"It's disappointing that the PPF decided to criticise an old document without making contact with WADA and without being informed," WADA said.
WADA's rules on out-of-competition doping tests have specific time frames which do not include in the middle of the night.
WADA continued that information on athletes' whereabouts in team sports would "probably be given by team officials on a collective basis rather than by players individually."
- AFP /ls
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