The World Anti‑Doping Agency has described the lack of drug testing in Spanish football during the past 11 months as “alarming” and “deeply disappointing”.

The National Anti-Doping Organization of Spain was declared non-compliant in March 2016, since when no Wada-compliant testing has been conducted across the country’s various football levels, including La Liga.

“The lack of testing in a country with one of the leading football leagues worldwide for a period of 12 months is alarming and will do little to instil confidence in clean sport at a time when it is needed most,” read a Wada statement.

“After Aepsad was declared code non-compliant on 19 March 2016, Wada encouraged an agreement between Aepsad and International Sport Federations that would ensure testing would be carried out on national-level athletes in Spain during the period of non-compliance.

“It is deeply disappointing that some International Federations did not sign the agreement, as this has prevented effective anti-doping programs from being run at the national level in Spain in a number of sports [during this period of non-compliance].”

In response, AEPSAD said it expects to be able to resume drug testing once the government approves a global code, possibly by the end of this month.

“This situation will be resolved once the Royal Decree is approved to implement the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code, with which Wada will then proceed to declare AEPSAD compliant with such code and the ban on Madrid’s anti-doping lab will be lifted,” read a statement.

The authority also blamed Fifa and Uefa for not taking over drug testing in football after Wafa declared it non-compliant last March, which came about after it missed a deadline for required changes to its drug-testing procedures. Wada shut down Madrid’s anti-doping laboratory in June.

“AEPSAD requested of Fifa and Uefa, following a proposal of Wada, the signing of an agreement so that these international federations would take over the anti-doping controls during AEPSAD’s non-compliance period,” the statement said. Both federations declined, however, as they saw such widespread testing as beyond their area of responsibility, AEPSAD said.

La Liga clubs playing in Europe and Spain’s national team have been tested this season by Uefa and Fifa, respectively.