Russia offers FIFA joint investigation into doping in football

Moscow Dec 21 (IANS) The Russian Investigative Committee on Thursday offered to cooperate with FIFA in a joint inquiry on the alleged use of steroids and other performance-enhancing substances among members of the Russian national football team.

The committee proposed objective analysis of data that the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) provided to FIFA related to the results of anti-doping tests of athletes including football players carried out by the Russian anti-doping laboratory reports Efe.

"Yet again the Russian Investigative Committee declares its readiness to cooperate with international organisations to exchange information and analyse cases of violation of anti-doping rules by Russian athletes " the committee said in a statement.

The committee highlighted that it had sent a similar invitation to WADA which according to the RIC took no real action.

The RIC opened a criminal investigation against the former head of Russia s national anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov who is accused of power abuse.

On December 1 the president of the Russian football federation Vitaly Mutko denied at a press conference that Russian players had used banned substances.

In August 2016 FIFA opened an inquiry into doping in Russian football with 11 players allegedly involved according to the 97-page independent report released by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.

--IANS
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