French, Italian, Dutch federations fined for being slack on doping

ZURICH (AFP) - World football's governing body FIFA fined the French, Italian and Dutch football federations for being too slack in punishing players for doping offences.
FIFA's disciplinary body also warned the three federations that they faced harsher sanctions in the future "if they repeated the practice" of undercutting its minimum six-month suspension and a fine in recent doping judgements.
The French federation received the stiffest fine of 14,500 Swiss francs (9,300 euros, 11,500 dollars) after it failed to respond to the disciplinary charges by a cut-off date of September 16.
The Italian and Dutch federations were fined 10,000 Swiss francs.
Football has already run into trouble with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for being too lax with its penalties.
WADA wants the governing body to implement the two-year ban stipulated in the international doping code approved by most other sports, but FIFA's president Sepp Blatter wants to treat cases on an individual basis.