Special advisor to FIFA on drugs was paid by Russia
FIFA should appoint an independent external investigator to probe at least 34 football cases arising from Russia’s pan-sport doping scandal, according to former world anti-doping agency (WADA) president Dick Pound.
This comes as Sportsmail reveals a special advisor to FIFA on medical matters, Martial Saugy, who has close ties to Russian sport, is understood to have been consulted about the FIFA probe into Russian football.
Saugy was until last year the director of the worldrenowned Lausanne laboratory, WADA’s flagship lab. But he left his post after an official report was critical of the way the lab destroyed Russian samples that WADA wanted keeping. Saugy has been paid in the past by the Russian Sports Ministry for his expertise. This newspaper has also seen minutes of a meeting convened by Saugy in April 2015 describing Moscow’s anti-doping lab as ‘one of the best and most efficient’ in the world.
This was almost two years after that lab’s director, Grigory Rodchenkov, had been exposed as being at the heart of a doping and coverup scandal, and four months after WADA began a major probe into that affair.
As this newspaper first disclosed last month, Russia’s entire 23-man squad from the 2014 World Cup are among the footballers under the spotlight. FIFA say they are investigating but the governing body is now working in partnership with Russia, which will stage the World Cup next year.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin, and until recently had Russia football federation chief Vitaly Mutko was on FIFA’s powerful council.
Infantino has been flown in Russian private jets accompanied by Mutko on FIFA business.
‘[An independent investigation] would certainly be a way to provide the process with credibility and avoid any conflict of interest,’ Pound said.
A FIFA spokesman said: ‘The FIFA Anti-Doping Unit is leading the investigations. Such investigations are conducted independently, in close collaboration with WADA, and at the highest standards.’
The MoS asked FIFA, for the avoidance of doubt, whether Saugy was involved. The spokesman said: ‘He has been engaged as a consultant and advisor to FIFA in medical matters for many years.’
A vital part of any investigation into the Russian sports authorities will be to examine more than 3,000 samples ‘airlifted’ from Moscow to Lausanne as corrupt Russian officials destroyed evidence of state-supported doping two years ago.
Two reports into the scandal by Canadian lawyer, Prof Richard McLaren, found evidence of a swapping system where urine samples containing banned performanceenhancing drugs were ‘cleaned’.