Doctor fired by FIFA investigates alleged doping in Russian football


 • Professor Jiri Dvorak says he has not received any explanation after 22 years of work
• Other senior FIFA officials have been expelled when examining issues related to Russia


The former chief medical officer of Fifa was investigating the supposed doping of Russian state soccer players when his work was abruptly interrupted under the presidency of Gianni Infantino last November. Professor Jiri Dvorak, a leading physician and consultant neurologist who worked in the medical, anti-doping and injury prevention programs of Fifa for 22 years, complained that he had not received any notification or explanation when the governing body of the World Game of He suddenly finished his job.

The end of Dvorak and his work, which he combined with the chairmanship of the department of neurology at the Schulthess Clinic in Zurich, were some of the many games of FIFA staff after the election of Infantino last February to succeed Sepp. Blatter This expulsion of people has been described as "somewhat brutal" in a very critical report on the FIFA government for the Council of Europe this month by Anne Brasseur, a representative of the Luxembourg Democratic Party.
Dvorak expressed concern that FIFA has abandoned some of the global programs it initiated as head of FIFA's medical research and evaluation center, a pioneer in scientific research on health promotion and injury prevention.

Reliable sources told The Guardian that Dvorak had begun reviewing the allegations contained in Professor Richard McLaren's historical report to the World Anti-Doping Agency in July 2016, which for the first time exposed widespread Russian doping and systematic concealment in the laboratory. of Moscow.

This report included evidence that 11 footballers were doped athletes and that the alleged Russian program was orchestrated before the London 2012 Olympic Games and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports. Sports.

The minister was then Vitaly Mutko, now Russian Deputy Prime Minister, who remains the president of his federation and chairman of the organizing committee of the FIFA World Cup in Russia next year.

It is assumed that Dvorak contacted McLaren after the first report, to review the evidence related to the players and consider the need for further investigation. It is understood that you have written to the Russian Federation to request additional details, including your laboratory reports. Dvorak is not supposed to have received the information he requested when the Infantino regime in Fifa threw him out.

Following the second McLaren report last December and the work of the Schmid commission for the International Olympic Committee, which included further accusations of Mutko's participation in Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, the IOC has excluded the Russian team from the upcoming Olympic Games . Pyeongchang winter and personally banned Mutko from his participation in the Olympic Games. FIFA, however, has not taken any action against him or against Russia, and continues to rely on the country to organize a successful and lucrative 2018 World Cup.

The Guardian revealed earlier this month that the former chairman of the FIFA ethics committee, Swiss prosecutor Cornel Borbély, had begun to examine Mutko's role in the scandal when Borbay's injunction was suspended at the instigation of Infantino.

The former chairman of the FIFA government committee, Portuguese lawyer Miguel Maduro, was also removed from the congress. Since then, he has said that he followed an effort by Infantino to convince the committee to revoke his decision to ban Mutko from the Fifa board of directors. This decision was due to Mutko's position in Russia in conflict with FIFA rules that board members should be politically neutral, but Infantino argued that denying Mutko would be detrimental to the organization of the 2018 World Cup.

Breweur said in his report: "The large number of people who returned after the election of Mr. Infantino can be explained, at least in part, by the desire to withdraw staff too close to the previous address ... and they can also How these changes have taken place seems somewhat "brutal" because I have heard that some people define the process. "

None of Borbély, Maduro or Dvorak have been asked to perform transfer procedures to their successors to ensure that their work is not interrupted or delayed.

Dvorak refused to comment on his investigation of Russian doping or his dismissal, except to say that he was not happy with his elimination, since he had not given him an explanation after 22 years of work. He said he believed that FIFA had a "moral duty" to continue health promotion programs, because of the power of football to communicate. FIFA reported that, as part of a review, some "non-essential" medical projects had been canceled, which had "shown limited impact".

When asked if the dismissal of Dvorak was related to his research on doping of the Russian state, or because he was considered close to Blatter, FIFA in a statement. "As a rule of thumb, Fifa does not comment on individual HR issues in any other organization, some people leave FIFA and reach new people, especially during a period of restructuring after the arrival of a new direction with a new vision. His speculation about Professor Dvorak's departure is totally unfounded. "

The body of world football has confirmed that it has launched an initial investigation into doping allegations after the release of McLaren's first report in July 2016 and said that after Dvorak's departure: "Investigations continued despite the the presence of Professor Dvorak. "

Fifa insisted that investigated the evidence contained in the first and second McLaren reports, and in December 2014 additional Moscow laboratory samples that included 154 players were seized, but "did not show any anti-doping rules any of A spokesman said he was waiting for an additional forensic analysis of the samples seized in Moscow, using a technique developed by the IOC to determine if the bottles had been opened, so that they could be altered.

FIFA declined to say whether Borbély's substitute, Colombian judge María Claudia Rojas, was investigating Mutko. The organization rejected Brasseur's report, which also questioned Rojas' ability as a researcher, to "lack objectivity".


Mutko rejected all the complaints of a state doping operation in Russia, and he did it again in the draw for the World Cup in Moscow, where Infantino was sitting next to him.

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