Spanish anti-doping bosses see no end to the legal battle surrounding the blood bags withheld by courts in the Operation Puerto case.

Enrique Gomez Bastida, the director general of the Spanish Anti-Doping Agency, has admitted he does not know when a ruling will be made on the 211 blood bags seized by police from Dr Eufemiano Fuentes’s office in 2006.

Fuentes received a one-year suspended sentence last April for his part in doping in cycling.

Following the protracted trial, a court in Madrid ruled the blood bags and other evidence would be des-troyed.

The World Anti-Doping Agency launched its appeal in May 2013, and is still awaiting an outcome.

Fuentes confirmed in court he had clients from other sports, including tennis, football and athletics, but not that they had been involved in doping.

Gomez Bastida told the UK Anti-Doping Tackling Doping in Sport Conference that some of the blood bags were discovered in a public hospital.

The 211 bags in question are still being held in a Barcelona lab.

“Currently we are still awaiting a decision on this,” said Gomez Bastida.

“Any release would not provide an immediate solution, as the blood samples would need to be identified.”