Italian anti-doping officials have been covering up a whole series of dope test failures by the nation's top footballers since 1996, it was claimed last night.

Italian soccer was already reeling from allegations by the morning newspaper Corriere della Sera that a positive test by a Udinese player had been covered up, when ANSA news agency claimed several more cases had also been buried.

The allegations point to a systematic falsifying by the country's test laboratory, whose failures on Monday cost Mario Pescante his job as president of the ruling national Olympic committee (CONI).

The cover-ups have reportedly been discovered by Turin state prosecutor Raffaele Guariniello, who is leading a judicial enquiry into drugs in Italian football.

The paper claimed that four players were tested after a league match on January 4th in Rome, in which Udinese beat AS Roma 2-1. Traces of a banned stimulant were found in one of the `A' samples, according to a lab expert, who was told to keep quiet about the discovery, it said.

Hours later, the expert looked for the relevant `B' sample, which should have remained in a sealed container, but the container was eventually found with the seal broken and all trace of the test gone.

Top Italian sports officials knew about the affair but also kept quiet, the paper claimed, adding though that the test results were probably never passed on to either the club or the player.

An even bigger scandal is now set to explode after ANSA's evening report claimed that at least six other players also tested positive for banned substances during three matches that 1996-97 season, ANSA said, involving three different clubs in the Serie A.

Meanwhile, German football clubs are to accept random doping tests conducted at training sessions, the German National Olympic Committee (NOK) said yesterday. The German Football Federation (DFB) had previously only sanctioned testing after competition but bowed to NOK pressure to align itself with other sports such as cycling and tennis, which had already accept random tests.

The tests will now be introduced as early as January for the German Olympic team and at an as yet unspecified date for professional players, NOK president Walther Troger said.