Now FIFA turn heat on Russia over doping

FIFA’s ethics committee have opened a preliminary investigation into Russia’s deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko over his alleged role in the Russian statesponsored doping scandal in a move that could lead to the most explosive disciplinary process in global sport.

The independent report into the scandal by Prof Richard McLaren cites Mutko numerous times as having direct involvement in institutional doping and cover-ups, including in football cases.

Mutko (below) is not just a serving member of FIFA’s Executive Committee but the president of Russia’s FA. He was the most important political figure in Russia’s successful bid to stage the 2018 World Cup and was until recently the Sports Minister of Russia. As one of the key allies of Russian president Vladimir Putin he was recently promoted to become Russia’s deputy PM.

If the investigative chamber of FIFA’s ethics committee succeeds in prosecuting an ethics violations case against Mutko, he would be kicked out of FIFA and barred from his football roles. That would be a massive embarrassment for Putin and be certain to ignite a huge geopolitical row ahead of 2018.

The matter is so sensitive that the ethics committee is wary of publicly confirming a probe against Mutko is under way. But a spokesman has told the Mail on Sunday: ‘The investigatory chamber of the FIFA Ethics Committee takes note of the publication of the [McLaren] report and will examine it. If the report reveals violations of the FIFA Code of Ethics, the investigatory chamber will take appropriate measures and inform accordingly.’

Legal sources close to FIFA have confirmed the ethics committee has already made direct approaches to the world antidoping agency (WADA) and to McLaren to obtain the kind of hard documentary evidence implicating Mutko that would be necessary to secure an ethics conviction. McLaren is understood to be liaising with investigators.

WADA have previously made a public appeal to FIFA’s ethics committee to investigate Mutko.

McLaren obtained coded email correspondence purporting to show Mutko sanctioning the cover-up of footballing doping cases. The problem in prosecution terms is that correspondence makes reference to ‘VL’ (code for Mutko, being his first two initials) rather originating from him.

McLaren’s investigatory team is understood to have a body of evidence implicating Mutko, much of that being witness testimony, including from former Moscow lab boss Grigory Rodchenkov, now under FBI protection in America.

Ratifying that evidence could mean charges against Mutko will take time but the case will test the real global appetite to tackle doping, and Russia’s part in that.