Major fallout expected from report on Russia
GENEVA— A World Anti-Doping Agency panel will deliver its findings Monday into allegations of extortion and coverups involving Russian doping — a report that one of the investigators said exposes “a whole different scale of corruption” from the FIFA scandal.
Former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President Lamine Diack was put under criminal investigation last week on suspicion of corruption and money laundering. The charges were brought by French prosecutors acting on evidence provided by the WADA-appointed commission.
The panel, chaired by International Olympic Committee (IOC) veteran and former WADA president Dick Pound, will present some findings at a news conference in Geneva.
“This report is going to be a real game-changer for sport,” said Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer who sits on Pound’s three-member panel.
“This is a whole different scale of corruption than the FIFA scandal or the IOC scandal in respect to Salt Lake City,” McLaren said in comments published by Western University in Canada, where he is a professor of law.
McLaren suggested the allegations are more serious than FIFA bribery cases, which did not affect the outcome of any World Cup soccer matches.
“Unlike FIFA, where you have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets, here you potentially have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets — through extortion and bribes — but also caused significant changes to actual results and final standings of international athletics competitions,” McLaren said.
Asked Sunday about the possibility of Russia being kicked out of the sport, World Anti-Doping Agency president Sebastian Coe told The Associated Press: “I’m never saying never, but my instinct is that these things are better changed through engagement not isolation.”
The 82-year-old Diack left office in August after 16 years. Coe said he knew nothing about the allegations against Diack until being informed by French authorities.
WADA formed the independent inquiry after German broadcaster ARD aired a documentary — “Top secret doping: How Russia makes its winners?” — last December. It alleged systematic doping across athletics and other summer and winter Olympic sports.
The program implicated officials in Russia’s athletics federation, antidoping agency (RUSADA) and WADA-accredited laboratory in Moscow in acts of bribery to hush up positive doping tests, falsify tests and supply banned drugs.
The Moscow lab oversaw testing for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and is scheduled to lead the anti-doping program for FIFA when Russia hosts the 2018 World Cup.