LONDON, Dec 8: The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) welcomed on Monday a U.S. proposal to ban athletes for life if they test positive for steroids.

“It certainly is a positive signal and indicates a desire and wish to show the world that they want to have a clean sport,” IAAF general secretary Istvan Gyulai said in a telephone interview from the federation’s Monaco headquarters.

The American governing body USA Track & Field, which has been under attack after a series of doping controversies, agreed at its annual meeting on Sunday to call for lifetime bans.

The decision was immediately denounced as unenforceable by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) chairman Dick Pound, who condemned it as “some kind of grandstand play”.

“(USATF chief executive) Craig Masback is a very good lawyer and he knows perfectly well that’s unenforceable,” Pound said.

Gyulai agreed lifetime bans would be difficult to enforce in some countries. After a series of court cases, the IAAF halved its four-year bans for serious drugs offences in 1997.—Reuters