KEIR RADNEDGE in KALININGRAD —- Not one dope test has come back from positive from the World Cup in Russia after all the fuss and fear ahead of the finals following three years of controversy.

The sky fell in on Russian sport in general after the whistleblowing activities of former Moscow dope-test laboratory director Grigory Rochenkov who is now under witness protection in the United States.

Most of the focus of subsequent reports to the World Anti-Doping Agency was directed at the major Olympic sports but football was caught up though an inqury by world federation FIFA led to nothing.

A media briefing at the end of the World Cup group stage was told today by FIFA competitions director Colin Smith and local organising ceo Alexey Sorokin about a clean bill of health.

Smith said: “There have been more than 2,700 tests. Every single player at the World Cup finals has been tested at least once and in many cases the average is higher. A minimum of four players are tested at the end of every match. The samples are sent to the WADA-accredited laboratory in Switzerand and there’s been no anti-doping infringement or violation.

“We have a comprehensive programme in place and are satisfied with the process.”

Fitness levels

Concern about the host Russian team had been raised in the run-up to the finals with reference to a former national team player Ruslan Kambolov, who had been identified from previous reports. It was also noted that several Russian players came near the top of physical effort charts in leading the hosts into the second round where they face Spain on Sunday.

Sorokin indicated that no special favours had been granted to the Russian players because of their host status.

He said: “Tthey have been tested repeatedly for doping . . . We are happy for our team to make it through the qualifying phase. We are not overwhelmingly surprised and the dominating mood in many Russian media blogs is: ‘Sorry for not having believed in you so much.’”

The official assessment at the halfway stage is overwhelming delight at the best-organised World Cup since Germany in 2006 – certainly an enormous improvement on South Africa in 2010 and Brazil in 2014.

Smith said: “We delighted with how the World Cup has gone so far. Russia has put on an amazing event across the 11 hosts cities. We’ve received very positive feedback from teams, fans, media and commercial affiliates. They are very much enjoying it so far and we are very happy indeed with how it’s going.”

Some 2.2m fans have officially attended matches which represents 98pc of the total 2.6m ticketing availability. In football terms the finals have generated 122 goals at an average of 2.5 goals per game with only one goalless draw (Denmark v France). Fan fest, television ratings and social media take-up statistics had also been outstanding.

The Fan-ID system has also worked effectively with 1,627,000 issued – “We have never had so many guests in this country before,” said Sorokin – and Smith did not rule out adopting a version of the system for the finals at Qatar in 2022.

Bid leaders for the co-hosting staging in 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico have suggested that a Fan-ID might be an appropriate system to ease travel for supporters between the countries.

Later consideration

Smith had no direct answers to questions on how some national teams had ‘gamed the system’ on the last group matchday. These included England and Belgium fielding reserve teams in Kaliningrad and Japan effectively stopping playing in the last 10 minutes of their game against Poland.

This is one particular for FIFAs post-finals debriefing along with how to manage the boorish and widely-publicised boorish behaviour of Diego Maradona who is involved in the ‘legends’ programme which is intended to promote positive attitudes within and around the game in general.

The VIP lists issued to the media for the matches have demonstrated how politicians from western countries have maintained promises to stay away from Russia in line with sanctions policies over the major international issues.

But, said Sorokin, any politicians who change their mind for the knockout stage would be very welcome in the Russian Federation.

Sorokin said: “We have shown the world that we welcomed many fans from many countries and the atmosphere is truly hospitable and cordial. They’ll be welcomed as any football lovers. Anybody can come and is welcome to support their teams.

“We told the world how puzzled we are at the decision of certain politicians not to visit the World Cup and support their teams but they are always welcome.”

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