Now Russian ‘drug cheats’ cast shadow over World Cup
With the draw days away, Sportsmail can reveal…
THE glitzy World Cup draw this week at the Kremlin will be overshadowed by shocking fresh allegations that Russian footballers — and the man in charge of organising the tournament there next year — were embroiled in state-supported doping.
Whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov has confirmed to Sportsmail, via his lawyer, that he has evidence that shows dozens of footballers, including Russian internationals, benefited from the state’s scheme.
Five months after Sportsmail revealed Russia’s entire 2014 World Cup squad were being investigated for possible drug offences, we can also disclose that:
World governing body FIFA have yet to contact Rodchenkov despite being in possession of his lawyer’s contact details and knowing Rodchenkov wants to talk.
The head of Russia’s World Cup organising committee, deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, was embroiled in the state-sponsored scheme.
The revelations will tarnish the World Cup countdown and raise new questions about Russia’s suitability as hosts and fears that Russian officials or players could be prosecuted for anti-doping violations in the build-up.
Rodchenkov’s American lawyer, Jim Walden, has confirmed to Sportsmail that Rodchenkov is not only willing and ready to help FIFA but says he has evidence that shows dozens of footballers, including Russian internationals, were part of their state-sponsored doping regime.
Asked if Rodchenkov, who is currently in US protective custody, has such evidence and would share it with FIFA, Walden said: ‘Yes, and my phone is on, and my email is on.’
The high-profile draw next Friday will be co-hosted in Moscow by Gary Lineker and Russian sports journalist Maria Komandnaya, feature a host of celebrities and footballers, and be broadcast to millions worldwide. Russian dignitaries expected to be in attendance at the ceremony include former Russian sports minister Mutko, now a close colleague of president Vladimir Putin as well as president of the Russian FA.
Mutko has been accused of personal involvement in state-supported doping. He has always denied it ever happened, let alone that he was involved and questioned the credibility of Rodchenkov’s evidence.
Today Walden reveals Rodchenkov, the doctor at the centre of the Icarus documentary, has submitted sworn written evidence to an International Olympic Committee commission implicating Mutko in the doping conspiracy. Amid astonishing new details of Rodchenkov’s testimony, Walden says Rodchenkov has alleged to the IOC that he (Rodchenkov) met Mutko three times during the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, face to face in a hotel, where they discussed doping corruption of those Games.
Now it looks more likely by the day that the IOC will decide to ban Russia from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang when their executive board meet on December 5.
IOC president Thomas Bach, a long-time ally and supporter of Russia’s president Putin, has had a subtle change of stance in recent days, saying the board will not be swayed by pressure ‘from whatever side’. Previously he has voiced disquiet about a ban for Russia.
He also, crucially, referred to the lack of a blanket ban for Russia at the Rio 2016 Games, and the ‘important difference’ now that the IOC knows about Sochi 2014 doping — another hint his support for Russia is wavering.
Bach said: ‘Now it is about the integrity of the Olympic Games. Now it is about what happened at an Olympics, in a laboratory of the Olympics. What happened with Olympic athletes and with Olympic medallists. This is what we have to bear in mind when I say we will take a fair decision.’
Athletics governing body the IAAF kept Russia out of the Rio 2016 track and field events and Russia’s IAAF exile is likely to continue for now.
So Russia face being kicked out of the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea — but before that decision is made, Moscow will host a World Cup draw mired by doping suspicions that FIFA have consistently failed to allay.
FIFA say only that they continue to investigate but have still failed to contact Rodchenkov.
As this newspaper revealed in June, at least 34 Russian footballers are detailed in records smuggled out of Russia by Rodchenkov when he fled in fear of his life to the USA in 2015. Those records suggest the players
were among beneficiaries of a state-supported programme of doping and cover-ups.
Rodchenkov’s journey into exile was central to the jaw-dropping Netflix documentary, Icarus. The film has the feel of a Cold War thriller but Walden suggests the truth is more labyrinthine still.
‘I can confirm FIFA have not tried to contact me directly,’ he told Sportsell mail. ‘I don’t know FIFA well as an organisation but certainly if they operate like some of the international federations operate, they don’t want to overturn these stones. They’re happy having their head in the sand.
‘How awkward would it be if they did
New allegations that host country’s footballers were involved in state-sponsored doping Head of their organising committee — a friend of Putin and FIFA — embroiled in drugs regime
actually corroborate that the Russian footballers were doping and they had to ban Russia from its own World Cup? I assume they physically can’t take the [tournament] away from Russia. These things are extraordinarily complicated and I’m sure that people at the very top in Russia are paying close attention.
‘What I don’t understand is why they don’t just confess that it happened, and move on. Because if they simply did the right thing and said, “Yes, we did this, and we’re sorry”, I think that not only the people who support bringing them back now [into the international fold] would continue to support the case to bring them back, but it would be also easier for the international organisations to have confidence in them to turn the page as well. So that’s a bit of a mystery to me.’
Rodchenkov’s testimony in recent weeks comes as Russian cheats from Sochi 2014 have started receiving life bans from future Olympics as well as having results annulled. Sportsmail has seen other senior Russian insider testimonies name Mutko in connection to the doping plot.
Two IOC-backed probes, the Oswald and Schmid commissions, were set up to investigate Russian doping and Walden says Rodchenkov has already been asked for, and provided, more than 20 separate affidavits to those two bodies plus the World Anti-Doping Agency to flesh out evidence against Russian officials and athletes implicated in doping.
On Mutko’s alleged personal involvement in the scandal, Walden said: ‘I can tell you that this was a primary topic of the affidavit we submitted to the Schmid Commission, which is over 50 pages long.
‘There are many, many different pieces of evidence and information I could bring to your attention. Grigory had three meetings with him [Mutko] during Sochi, for example. I understood that Mutko was considering keeping the Sochi lab in existence after Sochi. I can even tell you the meetings were at the Azimut Hotel [a ski resort base near Olympic Park]. And on one of the occasions, there were reporters in the building.
‘They [Mutko and Rodchenkov] went to an area that was restricted but there was a glass balcony on which Grigory was briefing Mutko and Russia’s former deputy sports minister Yuri Nagornykh [on the Sochi manipulations under way], and Grigory believes the reporters would have been in a position to see or take pictures of them.’
Nagornykh was suspended by Russia’s authorities last year, one of multiple officials to lose their jobs over the doping scandal even as Russia denied to the world that anything had happened. His current whereabouts are unknown.
‘Mutko came to the [Sochi] Olympic village,’ says Walden. ‘Grigory has memos he has kept that were written for Mutko’s benefit. Among them are one written after [a revelatory German] documentary came out, with my client advising what would happen if there was a retesting of stored Olympic samples, and that there was a problem with race-walking.’ Sportsmail has one of those memos. ‘There are hundreds and hundreds of data points [incidents] with Mutko, and I must stress Nagornykh as well,’ Walden says. ‘One of the things that was outrageous and shocking to me was a conversation my client had in 2013 in which it was suggested he [Rodchenkov] should ‘spike’ a Ukrainian rival’s urine to make it look dirty and allow a Russian to win. That was something my client found an excuse not to do. This will be reported when the Schmid affidavit comes out.’
Walden worked for years as a prosecutor, taking on major Mafia cases. He counted victories over the infamous Bonanno family among his successes.
Sportsmail put a detailed list of the allegations to Mutko last week. An aide to the Russian vice-premier said: ‘Sadly Mr Mutko has a very busy schedule and he just cannot answer your questions.’