Fifa, world football's governing body, signed an agreement with the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA), which will see the organisations working more closely with each other in a bid to stamp out drugs cheats.
Sepp Blatter, Fifa president, and John Fahey, WADA president, signed a "letter of intent", which comes into practice with immediate effect, after discussing the revised version of the World Anti-Doping Code and the UNESCO Convention.
Fifa, which has in past years had reservations about the Code and how it could be applied to footballers, expressed satisfaction at the inclusion of more flexibility for sanctions in the revised edition.
"Fifa and WADA share the common objective of fighting doping and we will continue to do so through all possible means," Blatter said.
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"We look forward to working together as we continue to address the fight against doping in sport."
John Fahey,
WADA president |
Fahey added: "WADA values its partnership with Fifa and respects the very valuable work done to date by the Fifa Medical Committee, including research and education programmes in particular.
"We look forward to working together as we continue to address the fight against doping in sport."
Fifa has agreed to do its utmost to ensure that the relevant bodies within the organisation ratify the World Anti-Doping Code, Version 3.0.
In turn, WADA has declared its respect for the specificity of team sports as compared to individual sports, with ongoing discussions regarding whereabouts of information and testing pools for teams.
The letter of intent will be valid until FIFA has formally signed the Code Version 3.0.