MONTREAL, 22 June 2004 — The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has said it is satisfied with the handling of the doping case involving Croatia striker Ivica Olic at Euro 2004 and will not pursue further sanctions.

Olic tested positive for methylpresnisolone after the Group B match against France in which he came on as a substitute, but he was cleared to play in yesterday’s clash against England. UEFA’s control and disciplinary committee decided Olic had not done anything wrong, fining the Croatian Football Federation 6,600 euros for failing to comply with doping procedures.

“They made a mistake, they didn’t follow the process, UEFA was not aware of it but they have sanctioned it as an administrative mistake,” Olivier Niggli, WADA’s chief legal counsel, told Reuters yesterday. “It’s a big fine for an administrative mistake. We don’t think that it was cheating, that they were trying to cheat,” Niggli said. “I haven’t seen the details, but in principle it doesn’t look like a cover up or anything like that.” Olic’s positive test was the first since WADA and FIFA ended months of intense negotiations with world soccer’s governing body agreeing to adopt the world anti-doping code.

FIFA, however, has yet to implement the code, something it must do before the Athens Olympics or risk facing sanctions, including the removal of soccer from the Games.

Olic suffered a rib injury during a European Championship warm-up game against Denmark on June 5 and was given a pain-killing drug, which contained methylpresnisolone.

Pound Prepared to Extend Term as WADA Chairman

The head of the World Anti-Doping-Agency (WADA) Dick Pound said he was willing to extend his term with the agency until the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

Pound was expected to step down at the end of the year but was asked by board members to remain until the next Winter Olympics as governments begin to implement the world anti-doping code. “I guess they don’t want to change horses in mid-stream,” Pound told Reuters during a board meeting yesterday. “It could be tricky. “It’s relatively easy for sportsmen to do this because we have congresses and meetings...it’s a rule change.

“Governments have to put together a convention and sort of attach the code to that.

“Then they have to go back, one-by-one and get their governments to sign this treaty and adopt it to make it law.

“That’s the final piece of the puzzle then we have to make it work.” Pound has been in charge of WADA since its inception in 1999.

The decision to retain Pound could have been made on Monday but International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge could not be reached to get the necessary IOC approval. As a result an election will take place at the board’s next meeting on Nov. 21.

The term is three-years.