Now football is hit by Russian drug scandal
Governing body admit they are aware of doping allegations in Russia’s 2014 squad
THE Russian doping scandal takes another extraordinary twist today with the revelation that the entire 23-man Russia World Cup squad of 2014 have been dragged into the controversy.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has established that all those players — five of whom have been competing at the Confederations Cup, a year before Russia hosts the World Cup — are among more than 1,000 ‘people of interest’ to anti-doping investigators.
Hundreds of Russian sportspeople across dozens of sports remain active in competition while suspected of having benefited from state-supported doping.
The World Anti-Doping Agency told us that individual governing bodies could confirm numbers of cases being pursued as a result of investigator Professor Richard McLaren’s work. Some have done so. Some have refused.
FOOTBALL’S world governing body FIFA have admitted they are investigating whether Russia’s entire 23-man 2014 World Cup squad were part of the country’s state-supported doping programme and cover-ups. The bombshell revelation comes after a Mail on Sunday investigation found those 23 players and another 11 footballers are among more than 1,000 ‘people of interest’ to officials charged with getting to the bottom of global sport’s biggest scandal of the past decade.
With Russia currently hosting the Confederations Cup — they lost 2-1 to Mexico in Kazan last night — and one year before they stage the World Cup, today’s incendiary developments pose further questions about their suitability to host that showpiece.
FIFA have confirmed knowledge of the allegations against the Russian players and are in possession of detailed evidence and intelligence. What action they are taking is unclear but respected anti-doping advocates say FIFA must act — or face derision.
‘There is a huge onus on FIFA to reach a sensible conclusion on these matters before the World Cup takes place,’ said lawyer Dick Pound, the former head of the World AntiDoping Agency (WADA) and the longest-serving current member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
‘It is incumbent on them to say what steps they are taking, what they find, and take whatever action necessary to protect the integrity of sport. Even within a governing body with as little credibility remaining as FIFA, if you were a senior official you wouldn’t want to be part of a body that ignores this.
‘There has been an institutional denial of doping in football for years … I’ve seen too many presentations by FIFA, straight out of fantasy land, about how they don’t have a problem. They absolutely have to take this case seriously.’
The Mail on Sunday’s exclusive investigation into the fallout from the Russian doping scandal shows:
Hundreds of elite Russian sportspeople suspected of benefiting from a state-backed cheating scheme continue to compete at world level, some not even being scrutinised by their sporting authorities, let alone prosecuted.
The 34 footballers are of interest to the anti-doping authorities because of irregularities with some urine samples — although it is unclear which ones relate to World Cup players — and a concern among investigators that some players at least were being protected from failing tests.
Five of the 23 players tested in 2014 are members of the current Russia squad competing at the Confederations Cup.
Some sports governing bodies have provided breakdowns of cases and action but FIFA declined to do so. A spokesman confirmed, however: ‘FIFA is still investigating the allegations made against (Russian) football players.’
Two official reports commissioned by WADA and published last year found at least 1,000 people were assisted by an ‘institutionalised manipulation of the doping control process in Russia’.
As an accompanying panel details, the number of individuals being investigated by sport ranges from more than 200 in athletics to doubledigit numbers in 13 other sports, and more in others. The sources of information about some alleged Russian dopers are so sensitive that other cases have not been revealed, even to federations, lest the sources are endangered. Two former senior Russian antidoping officials, Vyacheslav Sinev and Nikita Kamaev, both died in mysterious circumstances in close proximity to each other last year. Documents seen by The Mail on
Sunday reveal astonishing new details of the doping programme unfolding, including panic among Russian apparatchiks, fully aware of the cheating they were facilitating — from at least 2011 to 2015 — but still dumbfounded by how blatant some sportsmen were being.
The investigation brings the first confirmation that Russia’s international football team are implicated — a massive embarrassment to the president of the Russian FA, Vitaly Mutko, the former sports minister named in the WADA reports as playing a key role in the scandal.
He is also the man who led Russia’s successful bid to stage the 2018 World Cup. He has always denied any knowledge of, let alone involvement in doping.
One source in Moscow says: ‘Mutko has kept his job at the FA only after convincing (Vladimir) Putin that he has a key relationship with FIFA that needs to be maintained for the World Cup.’
The Mail on Sunday has established that 100 footballers’ urine samples are among a batch of around 3,500 ‘airlifted’ from Moscow to Lausanne by WADA two years ago that are waiting to be examined. The WADA-commissioned investigative team were headed by a Canadian lawyer, Professor Richard McLaren. They gathered evidence ranging from testimony of key figures involved to spreadsheets of doping schedules, emails and texts.
Russia destroyed evidence when the scam was rumbled. But even amid what was left, sources say there is ‘compelling evidence’ of possible anti-doping violations in around 600 cases.