MOSCOW: FIFA defended Russia’s right to host the World Cup amid a series of doping scandals, saying Tuesday that there is no sign of “widespread” drug use in Russian football.

Russia has been stripped of dozens of Olympic medals for doping and cover-ups, including tampering with samples.

Football is among the sports where positive tests were apparently covered up, according to a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation last year.

“From the information we have, we cannot talk about widespread doping in football in Russia,” FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura said Tuesday, three days before FIFA hosts the World Cup draw at the Kremlin.

All World Cup samples will be shipped out of Russia to a laboratory in Lausanne, Switzerland, on the day they are collected, Samoura said.

Documents from a WADA investigation last year said arrangements were in place to protect players from Russia’s 2014 World Cup squad if they were to test positive in the country before the tournament. The documents don’t directly accuse Russia’s World Cup squad of doping, but they do include records of alleged drug use among players from youth national teams.

Russian Deputy Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the national team didn’t play well enough to be suspected of using performance-enhancing drugs. Russia didn’t win a match at the last World Cup, and haven’t gone beyond the group stage of any tournament since 2008.

“If we play like that while doped, then how would we do without?” Mutko said. “It’s absolute stupidity.”

YASHIN-THEMED POSTER

Samoura and Mutko were speaking as FIFA presented the official poster for next year’s World Cup finals, unveiling a vintage design of Soviet goalkeeping great Lev Yashin in flight.

Inspired by the constructivist art movement, the poster shows Yashin, wearing a knee brace and his signature cap, leaping across to get a hand on an oversized ball featuring Russia’s landmass seen from space.

Orange rays emanate from the ball and the circle of green in the middle of the poster represents the pitches of the 12 tournament venues, FIFA said.

The poster’s presentation comes three days before the World Cup draw takes place to determine the match ups for the group stage.

“We are very proud of this beautiful landmark asset that portrays such an important icon and celebrates the coming tournament on Russian soil,” Samoura said of the poster.

Yashin, who died in 1990, competed in four World Cups — 1958, 1962, 1966 and 1970. He is the only goalkeeper to have won the Ballon d’Or award.

Russia is set to host the World Cup finals from June 14 to July 15 in 12 venues spread across 11 cities, including Moscow, St Petersburg and Sochi.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2017