The Russian Football Union (РФС) has confirmed that following notification from FIFA,  it is investigating three potential anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs) from 2013, involving two men and one woman. FIFA has also confirmed that the three cases resulted from analysis of the Laboratory Information Management System retrieved from the Moscow Laboratory in January 2019, in partnership with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). ‘No further potential ADRVs were identified amongst football samples in the LIMS database’, revealed a FIFA spokesperson in an email.

‘This is not about the players who were called up to the national team’, wrote the РФС in an email, perhaps referring to a notification sent in 2015 that a national team player had reported an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for dexamethasone, a glucocorticoid. ‘All the necessary information has been communicated to the specified persons and the RFU will provide them with all the necessary legal assistance’.

Eduard Bezuglov (Эдуард Безуглов), Chairman of the РФС Medical Committee, added that the РФС would conduct its own investigation and would interview everybody potentially involved. “Despite the fact that we are talking about 2013, the RFU is concerned about the current situation and will take all the necessary measures within the framework of the established policy of zero tolerance in Russian football to any form of violation of anti-doping rules. At the same time, I am sure that it is absolutely premature to draw conclusions about the guilt of the players, and the union will provide the athletes with all the necessary legal and organisational assistance.”