Autoridade Brasileira de Controle de Dopagem (Brazil's state-funded anti-doping authority) Exec Dir Marco Aurelio Klein said that the World Anti-Doping Agency "could fast track an application from Brazil's new drug-testing laboratory to ensure a facility is in place for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics," according to Tariq Panja of BLOOMBERG. Brazil "suffered a setback in August when an existing laboratory, Rio's LAB DOP-LADETEC/IQ-UFRJ Doping Control Laboratory, or LADETEC, had its accreditation to carry out analysis revoked by WADA following repeated failures." Klein said that the closing means drug testing for next year's football World Cup "will be sent to overseas labs." Klein said that the new laboratory, part of an 80M reais ($36.3M) project, "is currently under construction and will be operational" by Sept. '14. WADA's accreditation "can begin once the facility is up and running." Klein: "If they think it's going as well as we expect them to, we will have new accreditation from July or maybe August 2015. That's in good time for the Olympics and Paralympics. Without fast track, it takes much longer." Of "immediate concern is the World Cup, which starts June 12." Klein said that FIFA had wanted to find a solution in Brazil, "though that will not be possible." Klein said that "blood probably will be sent to a facility in Lausanne, Switzerland, and urine to a laboratory in Lisbon." Approval "is needed from FIFA" (BLOOMBERG, 10/9).
