Fear of more Russian cheats

THE Russian doping scandal could be deeper than realised with ‘thousands more cheats’ still to be exposed in the secret computer files obtained by the World Anti-Doping Agency from the corrupt Moscow laboratory.

The lawyer representing whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, who revealed the depth of institutionalised doping in Russia, says he has still not been contacted by FIFA even though his client has detailed knowledge of the doping programme of the Russian national football team. Jim Walden says that even though his client is in witness protection in the US, he fears for his life partly because the International Olympic Committee has not acted strongly enough in the face of Russian death threats to his client and the chief witness. The IOC has rejected the claim.

Walden’s fears are because Rodchenkov, formerly the head of Russia’s gold standard anti-doping lab, has vital information on the extent of doping in Russian football, whereby urine samples were protected by the authorities from any positive test by what was dubbed ‘the disappearing positive methodology.’

Rodchenkov’s evidence would be a huge embarrassment with Russia hosting the World Cup next summer.

Walden said: ‘Obviously FIFA has big problems. Dr Rodchenkov would be in a very significant position to confirm that Russian soccer players were part of and protected by the state doping system, including the disappearing positive methodology outlined in Richard McLaren report [WADA’s investigation into the scandal].

Despite that, Walden says that he has still had no contact from FIFA. ‘My phone has not rung once.’ FIFA say they have made repeated efforts to contact Rodchenkov but have been told for security reasons they have to use WADA as an intermediary. The governing body pledged last week to begin fresh investigations into 34 suspect Russian samples.

Walden fears for his client’s life because he is about to testify by video link in the Court of Arbitration for Sport as Russian athletes appeal doping bans handed out on his evidence next month. He says the threat has increased since the IOC announced Russians could only compete as a neutral team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

‘Right after the ban I was contacted by US [government] officials and told that I had to assume that there were Russian operatives in the United States looking for him and that there had to be a shift in our security and communications protocols,’ he said.

‘We obviously took that seriously and everyone involved took that seriously.’

Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Leonid Tyagachev has said that Rodchenkov needs to be ‘shot for untruths’ while Russian authorities have attempted to have the whistleblower extradited.