JOHANNESBURG, Nov 12 — FIFA will need another doping testing laboratory for next year's World Cup, since the Rio lab will probably not be ready in time, the world doping policing body said today.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in August revoked accreditation for Brazil's testing lab in Rio de Janeiro, and it will take time to be allowed back in again, according to WADA president John Fahey.

“It's almost certain it won't happen before the World Football Cup next year,” Fahey told journalists at the World Conference on Doping in Sport in Johannesburg.

World footballing body FIFA has its own anti-doping programme to test players for banned substances, he said.

“Clearly that will involve using another laboratory.”

That might include flying samples to other countries, which posed a logistical problem but was “not unsurmountable”, he added.

“You can move the samples these days with aircrafts and regular flights.”

The move would no doubt run up costs for anti-doping tests during the 2014 World Cup.

Blood samples have to be tested within 36 hours to be valid.

The Brazilian laboratory previously had its accreditation suspended for nine months in 2012 before being reinstated.

The global anti-doping body conducts regular quality controls on its 35 laboratories worldwide. — AFP