Daily Times

MOSCOW: FIFA on Monday rejected a British media report alleging doping cover-ups among Russian national team soccer players, saying it had not found any evidence of doping among Russia’s players as the country hosts the World Cup finals. Reiterating a statement it made last month, FIFA said “insufficient evidence was found to assert an anti-doping rule violation by any footballer.” It added that the investigations opened against players named to Russia’s preliminary squad last month had been closed. Rubin Kazan defender Ruslan Kambolov, investigated by FIFA over alleged doping violations, was named in Russia’s preliminary squad last month but later sustained an injury and was left out of the final selection. “In the course of the investigations FIFA looked at every possible evidence, leaving no stone unturned,” the global soccer governing body said. FIFA launched investigations into possible anti-doping violations by Russian soccer players after a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found that more than 1,000 Russian competitors across more than 30 sports — including soccer — were involved in an institutional conspiracy to conceal positive drug tests.

Published in Daily Times, June 26^th 2018.