Anti-doping chief Dick Pound is looking for urgent talks with FIFA president Sepp Blatter to head off a major rift in world sport.
The Canadian head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is looking to reach an agreement with Blatter that would prevent soccer from being excluded from the Athens Olympics in August.
Blatter said on Monday that FIFA would not sign up to the WADA anti-doping code, a move that would exclude soccer from the Games, because it is unhappy WADA is insisting on the right to appeal against any FIFA ban imposed for a doping offence.
Pound said on Tuesday that he was not prepared to back down on the mandatory two-year ban applicable for a doping offence but that he wanted to meet Blatter to thrash the matter out.
"We can't make separate deals with any federation," Pound said by telephone from his Paris hotel.
"The code is the code. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has a very clear rule."
FIFA is the only major Olympic federation along with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to refuse to sign WADA's anti-doping code because it imposes an automatic ban of two years for doping offences.
The International Olympic Committee has made it clear that any sports whose federations do not sign the code will not be allowed to compete in Athens.
FIFA president Blatter, IOC chief Jacques Rogge, and Pound are set to meet on Friday at FIFA's Centenary Congress to sign an agreement on the issue.
But on Monday Blatter said: "If we don't reach an agreement with WADA then we will fight alone against doping."
At its executive committee in Paris on Monday, soccer's world governing body repeated its position that each doping case should be dealt with individually.
While WADA agrees with that, it insisted on keeping the right to appeal against any decision taken on doping by FIFA which WADA feels is too lenient.
That is the sticking point which could prevent the agreement between FIFA, WADA and the IOC being signed on Friday.
If that fails to happen, soccer's place in the summer Olympics is in jeopardy.
However, Blatter did say on Monday: "I cannot imagine that football will not be part of the Olympic Games in Athens this summer."
The IOC, meeting in Lausanne to draw up a shortlist of candidate cities for the 2012 Summer Games, has distanced itself from the spat, merely reiterating its stance.
"From an IOC perspective, it's clear and straightforward. All international federations have until the opening ceremony of the Athens Games to sign WADA's anti-doping code," IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.
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