Russian allegations put Coe on track for longest race of his career

It has been difficult to avoid the revelations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) earlier this week which accused Russia of 'sabotaging' London 2012 through 'widespread inaction' against athletes involved in suspicious doping activity.

A report released by WADA's Independent Commission outlined systematic problems within the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF) and called for Russia to be banned from next year's Olympics in Rio.

Its findings highlighted 'a deeply rooted culture of cheating', 'exploitation of athletes', 'confirmed involvement by doctors', 'coaches and laboratory personnel as enablers for systematic cheating', and 'corruption and bribery within International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)'.

The commission's chairman, and former WADA president, Dick Pound, has called for a provisional ban to be issued by IAAF.

Tomorrow IAAF will announce what sanctions, if any, it will impose on the ARAF. IAAF president, Sebastian Coe, and IAAF council members have been convening this week to discuss the next steps.

The IAAF's Code of Ethics allows for a broad discretion on what sanctions the governing body can hand out. The federation can suspend the ARAF's membership which would render them non-existent in athletics until the international governing body is convinced Russia has undertaken measures to address its problems.

This morning, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, admitted that his organisation lacked the power to ban Russia from the Olympics. As he waits to see what action the IAAF takes, rules contained in the Olympic Charter outline the options available to him.

Rule 44(3) of the charter would allow the IOC to refuse the Russian National Olympic Committee (NOC) entry to the Olympic Games 'at its discretion, at any time… without indication of grounds'.

The IOC could also invoke rule 27.9 and/or rule 59.1.4(a) of the charter as seen in the recent case involving Kuwait's NOC.

Rule 27.9 states that the IOC executive board may suspend an NOC if 'any act by any governmental or other body causes the activity of the NOC or the making or expression of its will to be hampered'.

This could be invoked following allegations that the Russian Federal Security Service's (FSB) was part of a wider pattern of 'direct intimidation and interference by the Russian state with the Moscow laboratory operations'.

Further, rule 59.1.4(a) states that, in 'the case of any violation of the Olympic Charter, the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC), or any other regulation…the NOC can be suspended by the IOC executive board who 'determines in each case the consequences for the NOC concerned and its athletes'.

If Russia's NOC is found to be non-compliant with the WADC, of which the IOC is also a signatory, this rule could be applied.

WADA does not have the power to ban athletes for doping which often leads it to bring cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

It seems likely that Russia will be given a provisional suspension from the IAAF council in the interim and possibly stripped of IAAF events next year. Under the IAAF's sanction process, Russia, as a member federation, would be asked to respond to the allegations and any sanctions.

The IAAF President has said he wanted answers from the Russian athletics federation and it would appear President Putin has attempted to mitigate the severity of any potential sanction by committing to plans to investigate claims of systematic doping in Russia.

Sebastian Coe looks set to take the first steps in what will be the longest race of his career as the world waits on his announcement tomorrow morning. Sports lawyers and the public alike will be following developments with interest.

Matthew Rogers is an editorial assistant at Solicitors Journal matthew.rogers@solicitorsjournal.co.uk