Paris -
The FIFA assured AFP on Sunday that they have tried to contact Grigory Rodchenkov, the person who exposed the doping scandal in Russian sports, and will do so again once the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) finishes reexamining samples of Russian football players.
The highest football governing body responded to statements made by Rodchenkov's lawyer to the Associated Press in which he reproached FIFA for not contacting his client despite the "information about Russian players protected by the State doping system" in the country.
"Not once did the World Anti-Doping Agency and Professor McLaren (the lawyer in charge of the report on the case) indicate to me that FIFA wanted to contact Mr. Rodchenkov," denounced lawyer Jim Walden.
Contacted by AFP, FIFA assured that they requested permission from WADA to contact Rodchenkov until November 22nd and the response was always negative.
Afterwards, FIFA is waiting for the analysis that WADA must perform starting mid-January. "The process is underway and FIFA will contact Dr. Rodchenkov through the agreed method at the opportune moment," stated a spokesperson.
Grigory Rodchenkov, head of Moscow's anti-doping laboratory for a decade until 2015, was the origin of the accusations that uncovered an institutionalized doping system in Russian sports.
This scandal led to the expulsion of Russian athletes from the Rio-2016 Games and the exclusion of athletes from this country "except for clean ones" from the Pyeongchang-2018 Winter Games, from February 9th to 25th.
In football, FIFA has claimed thus far that all analyses performed on football players have come back negative.
"If there were a serious doping problem in football, it would already be known, whether in Russia or in any other country in the world," defended FIFA President Gianni Infantino on December 1st, the date of the draw for the Russia-2018 World Cup.