Don't let Russia's World Cup success obscure history of cheating

Christine Brennan | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption How to spend 24 hours on a World Cup off day USA TODAY Sports' Martin Rogers takes us along while he explores Russia on a day in which there was no action in the World Cup.

So far, the most intriguing story of the 2018 World Cup just might be the surprising performance of Russia. When the Russians defeated Spain, the entire soccer world, including the news media, shouted as one from under the onion domes: Oh, what a Cinderella story.

Well, okay – if the glass slipper is full of human growth hormone.

What a stunning display of gullibility we are seeing from those who should know better: the networks, corporate sponsors, astute spectators and most in the news media. Russia is the most diabolical sports doping power on the planet. Punish it, as some have tried, and its officials move right along, lying, denying and obfuscating. This is the massive, state-sponsored cheating machine that has roared through Olympic Games and world championships with the kind of unabashed disregard for fair play and the rule of law that we last saw from East Germany.

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And now we think they’re all clean? We find their story charming? So they cheat like crazy with their track and field athletes and swimmers and so many others, but not their soccer players?

What an embarrassment this is for international sports, and the worldwide sports media.

“It’s a farce,” Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and the man who brought down Lance Armstrong, said Monday over the phone. “We know for a fact that the government of Russia, when it was awarded the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, saw the opportunity to exert national pride and power on the international stage and began doping athletes and swapping (urine) samples to achieve what it set out to achieve, which was winning the medal count and dominating its home Olympics. That’s been exposed. That’s undeniable.

“Now, they’re hosting another huge event. We know the doping system existed even as they continue to deny it, and we also know there’s a direct connection from that system to football in Russia. They've proven that they'll go to any lengths to win, and the testing results we’ve seen have been abysmal. We’re fools to believe it’s any different this time around from what happened in Sochi. They’re just laughing behind our backs.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency’s 2016 McLaren Report found that from 2011-2015, there were more than 600 positive drug tests that were covered up by Russian officials, including 139 in track and field, 18 in swimming and 11 in soccer.

In other words, soccer was not separate from Russia’s government-led doping. It was an integral part of it.

Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko was Russia’s minister of sport from 2008-2016 and chairman of the country’s 2018 World Cup bid. In December 2017, the International Olympic Committee banned him for life for his role in the doping conspiracy. But FIFA? Nothing to see here. There were no sanctions at all.

This is particularly egregious because former Russian laboratory director and 2016 doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov told the Associated Press that Mutko told him to cover up any doping in Russian soccer to “avoid any scandal.”

What’s more, the drug testing at the World Cup is not as strong as that done at the Olympic Games. Random athletes are being picked for testing after every game, but unlike the Olympics, there are no WADA independent observers present, only FIFA testers.

And just last weekend, Denis Cheryshev, a Russian star in the World Cup, denied taking banned substances after his father reportedly said his son was injected with “growth hormone” before the tournament.

On and on it goes. Of course it does. These are the Russians. It’s what they do. Even though Mutko quit as both head of the World Cup organizing committee and the Russian Football Union, he’s still floating around.

“Congratulations,” he told TASS after Russia’s penalty-kick victory over Spain Sunday. “Everything is fine. I congratulate all and thank all who were beside the team, who believed in them.”

When Mutko is happy, look out. He is one of the most accomplished sports cheaters of the 21st century. No matter how many happy stories you read about Russian soccer over the next few days, ask yourself this question: Why would he and his friends stop now?