DAVID BECKHAM, Wayne Rooney and all other members of the England squad face being drug-tested before the World Cup this summer. With the FA worried that a legal opinion this month could put it on a collision course with the Government over drugs, so ending hopes of public money being spent on backing a 2018 World Cup bid, talks are to start on a possible testing programme being conducted before the squad depart for Germany.

John Scott, the director of drug-free sport at UK Sport, which oversees the Government’s policy, said yesterday that such testing this spring “would send out a very strong message” since the players would be undergoing the same procedure as is required of all British athletes in the Winter Olympics in Turin, from February 10 to 26, and the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, from March 15 to 26.

Scott pointed out that many of the England players with Barclays Premiership clubs are already subject to regular testing. However, he said: “In principle, I am supportive of the England team being tested. We are going to talk to them (the FA). We are continuing to maintain good relations with football.” He added that the FA had worked “very hard” to deal with the social drugs problems in the national game.

Football is awaiting the opinion of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), in Lausanne, as to whether Fifa can be compliant with the code of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) and yet still administer its own punishments for doping offences. There has been outrage in recent years that several leading players, such as Jaap Stam and Edgar Davids, have received bans of only a few months after testing positive for anabolic steroids, whereas in other sports there would be an automatic two-year ban.

The Wada code, established in March 2003 in Copenhagen and backed immediately by the IOC, most international federations and many governments, insists on uniformity of suspensions for the same offence. Although the CAS opinion is not binding, a leading Fifa official told the Council of Europe recently that the world governing body would abide by the verdict.

However, Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, has been insistent that football should have individual case management and is supported by many other leading officials. If this hardline stance is continued, football faces being thrown out of the Olympics in 2008.

However, for the FA, things would become more serious since the Government would be bound to act this spring, when Parliament passes the Unesco convention on doping, so ratifying the Wada code. The Unesco convention obliges all signatory governments to withhold funding from any national governing body that does not abide by the Wada code.

Last year, the FA began talks with the Government about bidding for the 2018 World Cup. When England attempted to host the 2006 tournament, it received £3.1 million in public money, a figure that would be doubled to back a future bid. Furthermore, the Government would be expected to provide added financial support should England win the right to host the competition.

Other public money, such as the £1.5 million that Sport England gave to the FA during this financial year, would also be at risk. “The significance of the opinion of CAS is enormous,” Scott said.

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