Lionel Messi and Neymar will take part in a new anti-doping programme to trial a biological passport in football, FIFA said yesterday.

All players set to be involved in the seven-team Club World Cup next month will give samples beforehand to help laboratories prepare their individual steroid profiles.

Players then selected for anti-doping controls at the 8-18 December tournament in Japan will have their results measured against out-of-competition tests taken up to one month earlier.

“FIFA recently reviewed the current drug-testing procedures within football and come up with a new approach,” the governing body said in a statement. “The main, new aim will be to capture players’ individual steroid profile.”

FIFA announced the pilot project as the competition draw featuring the six continental champions and the host nation’s league winner was made in Nagoya, Japan.

Teams including Barcelona, the European champions containing Messi, and Brazilian club Santos, the South American winners featuring Neymar, will have to provide details of their whereabouts for testers to collect samples.

“Every club will be required to provide FIFA with accurate details of their team activities (matches, training schedule etc.) during the period from 14 November to 8 December,” FIFA said.

FIFA medical officials has consulted the International Cycling Union, which pioneered the biological passport in sports as a more efficient and effective method in the fight against doping.

The UCI repeatedly takes riders’ blood samples to measure the effects of doping rather than test for banned drugs.

FIFA’s worst case of steroid use in recent years involved North Korea players at the Womens’ World Cup in June.

North Korea was kicked out of the 2015 event and five players were banned for between 14 and 18 months after testing positive for steroids. Officials said they were treated with a traditional musk deer gland therapy after being struck by lightning at a pre-tournament training camp.

The Club World Cup lineup also includes African champion Esperance of Tunisia, Asian champion Al-Sadd of Qatar, Mexico’s Monterrey representing CONCACAF and New Zealand’s Auckland City from Oceania. The Japanese league title race is still undecided.