Fifa opens cases against three Russian players over suspected doping violations

Report said the footballers in question – two men, one woman – had not played for Russia’s senior national teams

Tom Balmforth,Anton Kolodyazhnyy
Monday 15 March 2021 04:33 EDT
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World football’s governing body Fifa has opened the disciplinary cases
World football’s governing body Fifa has opened the disciplinary cases (AFP via Getty Images)

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World football’s governing body Fifa has opened disciplinary cases against three Russian players over suspected doping violations.

The Interfax news agency cited the Russian Football Union as confirming the news on Monday.

The report did not identify the footballers, who are suspected of having committed the violations in 2013, but said two of them were men and one was a woman.

Read more: Tribunal sees through Freeman’s lies – but will anything change?

It said they had not played for Russia’s senior national teams.

“The Russian Football Union received information from Fifa about the opening of disciplinary cases ...” the union was quoted as saying.

Russian sport has been dogged by doping allegations for several years. A 2015 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) found evidence of mass doping among Russia’s track and field athletes.

Its athletes are barred from competing at major international events, including the Olympics, under the country’s flag until December 2022 for providing Wada with doctored laboratory data that could have helped to identify drug cheats.

Reuters

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