FIFA seeks more details on WADA doping report on football

Football world governing body FIFA will take “appropriate next steps” when it receives further information from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) following a report into doping in Russia.

WADA Monday urged FIFA’s ethics committee to look into allegations contained in the McLaren report on doping in Russia which concern football and the role played by Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Mutko, 57, is a member of the FIFA Council, formerly its executive committee, president of the Russian football federation and head of the 2018 World Cup organizing committee.

WADA said in a statement Mutko “played within the system.”

The McLaren report refers to positive tests entered as negative on at least 11 footballers in a period between 2012 and 2015, and said there was at least one case involving a foreign footballer in which Mutko appeared to be directly behind a cover-up order.

A FIFA spokesperson said it acknowledged the recommendations made by WADA, however the ethics committee “is an independent body of FIFA and only it can decide what actions to take in respect to this issue.”

FIFA will ask WADA for details on individual cases of doping in Russian football referred to in the report by Canadian law professor Richard McClaren.

“Once FIFA receives this information form WADA, it will take the appropriate next steps,” the spokesperson said.

Source: GNA