Russia is once again in hot water over doping allegations. This time though the ban will go extend to beyond just the Olympics.
Last week, the World Anti-Doping Agency banned Russia from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the 2022 Men’s World Cup in Qatar and the 2022 Winter Olympic games after the World Anti-Doping Agency found that lab data involving Russian athletes had been altered or manipulated. The ban will not apply to the Euro 2020 Championships and Russian athletes will have the opportunity to compete at the 2020 Summer Olympics and the 2022 Winter Olympics assuming they can pass the WADA drug testing.
Russian ties to doping are not new but this punishment is unique in two ways. First, it is a step-up in sanctions after Russia were banned from participating in the 2018 Winter Olympics. That ban was due to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) being found liable in the cover-up of a state-run doping program. In 2017, the International Olympic Committee announced that the Russian Olympic Committee had been suspended from the 2018 Olympic Games. Athletes were allowed to apply to play under a neutral flag but many athletes were not accepted.
Late last year, Russia’s three-year ban was lifted after RUSADA agreed to a full disclosure of all lab testing data. However, earlier this year WADA Compliance Review Committee found that RUSADA were not complying with the requirements of the agreement.
The second major difference with this ban is that it does involve football. Previous bans have been limited to the Olympics and have never really impacted tournaments like the World Cup. There are two reasons for this. First, one has to remember that FIFA and the IOC, which oversee WADA, have had at best a fractured relationship. That FIFA are allowing Russia to be banned from the World Cup (although Russia will allowed to participate in World Cup Qualification should they qualify for Qatar they will have to play in a neutral jersey and will not have the Russian national anthem played).
What is interesting is that Russia’s status at the 2020 European Championships remains unaffected. In their bylaws UEFA is not defined as a “major event organization” and thus not impacted by the rulings. Russia has already qualified for the 2020 Euros and will be hosting matches in St. Petersburg. The four year ban also does not include the UEFA Champions League which St. Petersburg will also be hosting in 2021.
Second, football has largely avoided the scrutiny of the doping scandals that have hit most other sports. The company line that those in football like to spout is that Performance Enhancing Drugs are often meant to build strength and given that football is more about speed and agility it doesn’t really make sense. Long gone are the days of players purely using steroids for mass building and building strength; athletes use legal and non-legal steroids and Human Growth Hormones for a variety of purposes.
Russian football’s ties to performance enhancing drugs has been murky. Last year Denis Cheryshev was being investigated in Spain for the use of HGH. He was subsequently cleared in September of 2018. A report in June 2017 from The Mail claimed that FIFA were investigating 34 Russian players for banned performance enhancing drugs. According FIFA President Gianni Infantino FIFA’s investigation found that all players suspected of using illegal performance enhancing drugs were cleared.
WADA’s ruling has had a mixed reaction with Russia threatening to appeal the case to the Court of Arbitration and Sport and various members of WADA threatening to leave the organization. What will be interesting to see is how each side decides to move next. This isn’t the first time that Russia has had to sit out an Olympics and given that their roles as host in the 2020 Euros and 2021 Champions League remain they may choose to take their punishment after a few well-placed shots against the western world. But WADA and the international community may still be tested with the U.S.-European alliance on political and social matters not having as strong a check as previous generations have had. Given the current state of affairs more chaos seems likely than less.
