Wada code faces report criticism

By James Munro
BBC sports news correspondent

Athletes must be available to provide a sample 365 days a year

The World Anti-Doping Agency's new code is set for renewed criticism, with new claims it may still contravene European data protection laws.

The BBC has obtained a copy of a report by the Article 29 working party for the European Commission, which says that numerous issues remain problematic.

It also questions whether so many athletes need to be bound by the code.

It includes the "whereabouts system", where athletes reveal where they are for one hour of every single day.

Under the rules, any athlete on the national testing register must make themselves available to testers for one hour a day, between 0600 and 2300, three months in advance.

This is done online, using the Adams (Anti-Doping Administration & Management System) website, and can be updated by email or text message.

The working party report, set to be published next week, will raise concerns about the way in which that information is gathered, and whether it can be transferred securely.

It will also suggest that the policy of naming drugs cheats and posting the details of their doping violations online is unnecessary.

World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) officials have stressed in the past that the new code, which came into force at the start of the year, was developed in consultation with athletes, and European regulators.

They insist that the code is a proportionate response to the threat of drugs in sport.

Criticism of Wada's code have come from the world of tennis and football. And the Professional Players' Association, an umbrella group of professional player associations in the UK, claimed that Wada's out-of-competition testing was becoming a "fiasco".

This claim was rejected by Wada, whose latest procedures were labelled as "draconian" by British tennis number one Andy Murray.

Football's place in the Olympics is reportedly under threat after world governing body Fifa and its European counterpart, Uefa, said they would not comply with the code because they wanted to respect players' privacy.