GENEVA (AP)

FIFA and the World Anti-Doping Agency announced an agreement yesterday in their dispute over rules for drug testing elite football players.

The governing body of world football said WADA has accepted its new plan to limit the number of players who will be required to detail their whereabouts every day during the offseason.

FIFA chief medical officer Jiri Dvorak said team sports like football could now target testing players defined as "at risk" , such as those recovering from injury or who previously used a banned substance.

"We have come to a common agreement," Dvorak said in a telephone interview. "If there is any suspicion, then anybody can be tested anywhere at any time,"

lengthy consultation

The peace deal was made possible after Howman offered to fly to Zurich for a meeting at FIFA headquarters, which took place Monday.

The two sides had appeared to fall out publicly last month after FIFA president Sepp Blatter, a member of WADA's governing board, called on the organisation to change the rule which took effect on January 1 after a lengthy consultation with sports leaders.

Blatter said players deserve privacy during holidays and that team sports should not be held to the strictest standards of the out-of-competition rule in the new WADA code because they train and play together at predictable locations.

Football also claims it carried out more doping tests than any other sport, more than 25,000 annually, with an average of 10 players testing positive each year from 2004-08.

Yet WADA president John Fahey said the request for players to be left alone by testing teams during the offseason "ignores the reality of doping in sport", with cheats seeking to gain an advantage of any loophole.

The new proposal tabled Monday by Dvorak and Michel D'Hooghe, chairman of FIFA's medical committee, called for targeted testing.