Vitaly Mutko and Fifa

Day -696. WorldCup2018

Today the news broke that Vitaly Mutko, Fifa Executive Committee member, President of the Russian FA, Chair of the Russia 2018 Local Organizing Committees, in his role as Minister for Sport in Russia, was directly involved in the disappearance of positive doping samples of hundreds of Russian athletes across 30 sports. It is probably the biggest doping scandal ever, bigger than Lance Armstrong and most of his fellow cyclists, or Ben Johnson, or whatever was rumoured to happen in places like East Germany pre-1989.

Amongst all the calls for Russia to be banned from competing in the Rio Olympics a number of things come to mind. The big bad Russians have been caught out and it is easy for the rest of the world to point accusatory fingers at them. But are they really the only ones? Sure, Russia, with the backing of their supreme leader Vladimir Putin, still want to use sport as a means to exhibit their dominance in the world for their own citizens, in the old Eastern European way. However, Kenya and Jamaica also have tradition and athletic pedigree to uphold. And with the recent doubts about local interference in their doping systems, how long before they are the next to fall?

But the Mutko story is about football. He is a senior figure in the Russian government. His Ministry covered up positive doping tests so that athletes could compete at the Sochi games. This man is the Russian government face of Russia 2018. I have to confess and admit that the whole fuss about this scandal doesn't overly impress me, especially in today's fragile world environment. Innocent people are killed brutally in France, Turkey, Baghdad, Syria etc and the world is up in arms over some Russians taking a few drugs so that they can run and jump faster and longer than some other athletes. Think about it relative to other events and it really does seem unimportant. The IOC is aghast at the compromised integrity of the Olympics. Ha! Good one. Let's not go down that path.

However, having said that, if we take the World Cup as a single event, irrespective of where it fits into the big picture of the world, it is pretty shocking that Vitaly Mutko is organising Fifa's biggest event. The doubts about how Russia were awarded the World Cup in the first place must surely resurface, if the local organisation is run by somebody who will intentionally lie and cheat. For that reason, Fifa must do something. And it has to be more than just a "strongly worded statement".

I'm sure Fifa are waiting to see how brave the IOC are going to be in sanctioning Russia. Banned from the Olympics? I highly doubt it. But then if IOC do go all the way, how can Fifa not do anything? Their own man in Russia is a supporter of cheating. We could go back now to the days before the Fifa presidential election when there was lots of talk of UEFA breaking away from Fifa and the World Cup in Russia becoming meaningless. How many countries will, or can, back Fifa if Russia 2018 goes ahead as planned?