By Andrew Warshaw
January 22 – The head of Norway’s FA has called on FIFA to step up its investigation into the Russian doping scandal and even consider a ban, comments that have prompted a furious response from his Russian counterpart.
Last week, FIFA confirmed it has questioned whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow laboratory chief whose revelations exposed the explosive scandal that rocked Russian sport, and that it had “requested that a forensic analysis is conducted on a concrete number of samples”.
But Norwegian FA boss Terje Svendsen (pictured) is not convinced FIFA is acting fast enough amid reports that 34 Russian national team players may have been involved. He is concerned that FIFA lacks the will to press ahead with its inquiries until after the World Cup.
“If football in Russia has been part of a government-controlled doping system then exclusion should be considered in the same way as for other sports,” said Svendsen. “But football is a team game so it is crucial to understand the exact extent in which national team players were involved or not.”
Svendsen indicated that all the Nordic nations, including World Cup finalists Sweden and Denmark, shared his concerns.
“On this kind of political question there is good cooperation between the Nordic countries. How we will specifically challenge FIFA is an issue we will discuss when we meet. The [latest] claims about Russian doping emerged this week so we have not been able to talk about it yet but we would expect the Nordic countries to be listened to.
“It has previously been unclear to what extent Russian football has been involved . . . Now we need to have facts on the table: how many players have been involved and how much they have been involved?”
“If it is the case that football is involved in the government-funded doping regime, it is of course very serious.”
Russia’s Football Union (RFU) immediately hit back, with acting RFU head Alexander Alayev telling the state-run TASS news agency: “The RFU considers the statements made by the president of the Norwegian Football Association absolutely unacceptable,”
Alayev, who temporarily replaced the under-fire Vitaly Mutko last month, stressed that his federation was “directly involved” with FIFA’s ongoing investigation and noted that it was considering taking action against the Norwegians who he accused of trying to “to discredit Russian football”.
“We are now also discussing the possibility of filing a complaint against the president of the Norwegian Football Federation with the FIFA Ethics Committee.”
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