• Former Test cricket umpire Asad Rauf has told the Press Trust of India (PTI) that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which banned for five years after being found guilty of corruption charges, had no authority to ban him. According to the PTI, the Pakistani umpire said that ‘the court in Mumbai told the police they had no evidence against me.’ The BCCI is yet to publish its statement.

• Suspended UEFA President Michel Platini’s appeal against his eight-year ban from all football-related activities will be heard later today, Monday 15^th February, the BBC has reported. FIFA’s Ethics Committee banned Platini and FIFA’s President Sepp Blatter in December last year after they found that Blatter had authorised a FIFA payment of CHF2 million (€1.8 million) to Platini which had ‘no legal basis’. Blatter’s separate appeal against his ban will reportedly be heard on Tuesday, while the Ethics Committee’s investigatory chamber will appeal against the sanctions for being too lenient.

• Sebastian Coe, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has met with the new President of the Russian Athletic Federation (ARAF), Dmitry Shlyakhtin. In a news bulletin on its website, the ARAF said that they had attended a ‘working meeting’ on Sunday to discuss ‘various matters’ including ways of bringing ‘Russian athletics ‘out of crisis’. Shlyakhtin was elected President of the ARAF last month but Russia remains suspended from competition by the IAAF following allegations of state-sponsored doping.

• The 34 players from AFL club Essendon, who have been suspended by the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for the use of a prohibited substance, have been warned not to expect a quick process in their appeal against the CAS. Last week, the AFL Players’ Association (AFLPA) confirmed that all 34 players had appealed the CAS decision on the grounds that the court should not have conducted the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appeal as a de novo hearing. Both AFLPA CEO Paul Marsh, Essendon chairman Lindsay Tanner and now WADA President, Sir Craig Reedie, have all said that they expect ‘the appeal process to take several months’.

• The Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK) has reportedly promised a ‘comprehensive investigation’ into an Associated Press report that two Kenyan athletes who failed drugs tests last year had alleged that the chief executive of the country’s track and field federation had asked for bribes in exchange for ‘more lenient punishments’. The report follows WADA’s decision last week to place Kenya on a compliance watch-list over its government’s failure to set up a national anti-doping agency, despite ‘some progress’ being made.