London - The Football Association (FA) is to establish a register of players with previous doping convictions as part of a series of measures aimed at combating the use of drugs in football, it emerged Tuesday.

"The identity of the players on the list will be decided by UK Sport and the FA," Andy Parkinson, the acting director of the anti- doping programme within Britain's national sporting body, told The Sun daily.

"We'll take into account behaviour of athletes in the past, long- term injuries where maybe they disappeared to Eastern Europe for six months to get an injury sorted - or if they have had a doping violation."

The move is part of a package of measures, which will also include random testing and stricter monitoring of players when they leave their clubs.

"Players have licence to take anything they want in the summer as they disappear off our radar," Parkinson said.

"I'm not arguing they do take things, but when England didn't qualify for the last Euro Championships, they didn't reappear until six weeks later before pre-season training. They could have done anything.

"Under this, they could be in Barbados and we can still test them.

"We are not evil regulators out to make life difficult for footballers. We're trying to protect their sport."

Rio Ferdinand is the highest-profile English player to have incurred a suspension, having been banned for eight months in 2003 after missing a drugs test at Manchester United's Carrington training ground.

"Rio Ferdinand would get two years now for a refusal," Carrington said.

"He had been notified that he needed to supply a sample and, under the new code, we'd call that a refusal or a failure to comply." (dpa)