Putin backs appeal on ban

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin has said his country have ‘reason to appeal’ against the four-year ban imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

WADA’s executive committee unanimously accepted a recommendation from its independent compliance review committee on Monday to impose sanctions on Russia.

They include barring teams under a Russian flag from competing at the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2020 and 2022 and the football World Cup in 2022, among other global sporting events.

The country would also be blocked from hosting international sporting competitions. Individual athletes may be able to compete in events if they can prove they are not implicated or affected by the manipulated laboratory data which led to the sanctions being imposed.

Russia has 21 days to respond to the proposed sanctions, and the most powerful man in the country has already indicated an appeal will be lodged. Putin said: “We have all the reasons to file an appeal to CAS (the Court of Arbitration for Sport).

“There are other considerations as well, but it is important that this issue is analysed by specialists, lawyers who would talk with our partners having this knowledge.”

The sanctions relate to tampering with data obtained from the Moscow laboratory in 2019. Investigators from WADA found that some of the deletion and manipulation occurred after Russia had been reinstated to compliance in September 2018, having initially been banned in 2015.