Russia could face ban from Olympics and Euro 2020

Russia could be set for a new ban from major international sporting events like next summer’s Olympic and Euro 2020 finals after a recommendation from a World Anti-Doping Agency committee.

Wada’s compliance review committee (CRC) will submit a formal recommendation to the agency’s executive which is expected to call for the country’s national anti-doping agency Rusada to be declared non-compliant over inconsistencies in anti-doping laboratory data.

The data in question relates to a period from January 2012 to August 2015 and was obtained by Wada in January of this year under the terms of Rusada’s reinstatement. Positive findings which were contained in a version of the data acquired via a whistleblower in 2017 were missing from the January 2019 data.

If the CRC’s recommendations are endorsed by Wada’s executive committee when it gathers for an emergency session on December 9th, and in the likely event that Russia contests the sanctions, the case would move on to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

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If CAS finds that Russia is non-compliant and agrees with the sanctions recommended, the country is facing an almost blanket ban from events like the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, plus football’s Euro 2020 tournament which Russia has qualified for.

Russia also faces being stripped of existing hosting rights for sporting events and being barred from securing new ones, with St Petersburg’s role as one of 12 host cities for Euro 2020 now in jeopardy.