Vitaly Mutko has been the a recurring subject for me over the last few years. The Russian Sports Minister, Chair of the Russia 2018 organizing committee and Fifa Executive Committee member has been a controversy constant. He was implicated as being involved in the Russian doping scandal but has refused to step down form any of his positions.
This may have changed. On Friday, Fifa announced that he is barred from running for election to the Fifa Council /formerly the Executive Council. Fifa. Fifa says this decision is in line with their policy that football remains free of government influence, and has nothing to do with the accusations that he helped cover up positive doping tests of Russian athletes, including footballers.
Mutko doesn't seem to be too concerned by the decision.
"I wanted to be re-elected but now Fifa, represented by its compliance committee, has somewhat changed the criteria. A new criterion, political neutrality, has been introduced. They want the organisation to be politically neutral and officials and representatives of authorities from various countries not to be elected to all their bodies. This is their right. There is no talk about an appeal. This is public work, everything is normal.”
I read it as, "I've been so lucky for so long that everybody at Fifa has been either so gullible or they haven't cared even though they knew what was going on, that I'm not going to bother fighting this."
This is not the end of Mutko as he is still running the organisation of Russia 2018. The cynic in me thinks that it is token disciplinary action against Mutko so that Fifa looks like it is taking a tough stance. They may also be trying to keep a step ahead of the International Olympic Committee who are wrestling with the idea, and subsequent implications, of banning Russia from the Winter Olympics next year. Despite all the accusations levelled against Russian Sport in the last year, and the instances of solid evidence, Fifa will never consider moving the World Cup away from Russia. So this Mutko ban is their compromise.
No comments:
Post a Comment