FIFA denies allegations that two Ahli players tested positive for taking drug. The world football governing body FIFA says it and its president, Joseph Blatter, are keen to dispel the rumour that two players from Egypt's Ahli Sporting Club failed doping tests after the 2006 CAF Champions League final. A FIFA statement said that immediately after the allegations surfaced and was reported to FIFA in early January this year, FIFA took appropriate measures to verify its authenticity. FIFA contacted its sports medical committee, which is systematically notified of positive test results by the testing laboratories accredited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). In the present case, no such official information was conveyed to the committee in question. Accordingly, FIFA invited the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the body responsible for organising the competition in question and the doping tests pertaining to it, to state its official position. CAF then informed FIFA that all the doping tests carried out after each leg of the 2006 CAF Champions League final -- three players per team, 12 tests in total -- had been negative. Consequently, following a thorough verification of the facts, it was made clear that the rumour was entirely without foundation. In turn, FIFA requested the immediate cessation of such defamatory rumours. FIFA takes an extremely hard line on doping. More than 20,000 doping tests are carried out worldwide every year under its aegis. Ahli officials, whose team won its fifth African crown when beating Tunisia's CS Sfaxien in November, were infuriated by comments attributed to Blatter in Paris last week. Blatter had allegedly told reporters at the new headquarters of the French football federation that information had come to light about two positive tests in the Ahli camp after a Champions League tie. He did not reveal the players' identities. "We requested immediate information about this subject. We must intervene," followed up the FIFA boss. "It can't be," said Ahli coach Hossam El-Badri. "All the doping tests of our players came back negative. "The rumour spread all over the world based on statements coming from the highest power of football in the world without any evidence or justification," El-Badri continued. Sfaxien alleged that two Ahli players tested positive for drugs after the second leg of the final in Rades. In a statement on their official website, the Sfax-based club said they discovered the incidents one week after the final but could not reveal them for lack of evidence. "The news was shocking but we were confident the team was not guilty," El-Badri said. "The only case we admit was Amr Samaka whose test came positive after the quarter- finals. He was then banned from the team," El-Badri added. In an earlier round, Samaka was suspended after testing positive for using a prohibited substance in the Champions League tie against Algeria's JS Kabylie.
