BANNED RUSSIA CAN PLAY AT WORLD CUP

... and have the country’s name on their ‘neutral’ shirts!

Russia are set to be allowed to play at the next World Cup as a ‘neutral’ team wearing a red kit and carrying the country’s name on their shirts — despite being banned. Yesterday, the Court of arbitration for sport (Cas) cut Russia’s ban from all major sporting events for doping offences from four years to two, a ruling described as ‘nonsensical’ and ‘devastating’ by anti-doping critics.

The suspension still prevents the country from competing at next summer’s rearranged Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar under their own name, flag and anthem.

However, Russian athletes not implicated in the doping scandal will be able to compete as ‘neutrals’.

and that should include the country’s football team who, in the unlikely event they go on to reach the World Cup final in Qatar two years today, could even play under their own name as the ban ends on December 16, two days before the final.

in another watering down of the initial sanctions handed out by the World anti- Doping agency ( WADA) last year, Russians who compete as neutrals are now allowed to wear the colours of their flag (red, white and blue) on kits.

They can also have ‘Russia’ on their clothing as long as the words ‘ neutral athlete’ or ‘neutral team’ are given equal prominence.

Russia’s football team are already allowed to compete as themselves at next summer’s delayed Euro 2020 and in World Cup qualifying, as those are not defined as ‘major events’.

FIFA are yet to comment on yesterday’s Cas ruling, but last year WADA confirmed ‘if there is a mechanism put in place, Russia can apply to participate on a neutral basis’.

Campaign group Global athlete said: ‘This is another farcical facade that makes a mockery of the system. Russia have not been banned, they have simply been rebranded.’

The verdict announced yesterday follows last month’s appeal by the Russian anti-Doping agency (RUSADA), who were ruled non-compliant by WADA last year for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators.

The British Olympic association expressed their ‘disappointment’ last night that WADA’s recommendations were ‘not endorsed in full’.

UK anti-Doping chief Nicole sapstead added: ‘it is hard to imagine a more serious breaking of the rules in sport, so i don’t understand the justification for this reduction.’

Cas said their ruling should ‘not be read as any validation of the conduct of RUSADA or the Russian authorities’. But they added: ‘ it has considered matters of proportionality and, in particular, the need to effect cultural change and encourage the next generation of Russian athletes to participate in clean international sport.’