Russia banned from global sports for 4 years

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday approved a recommendation by its Compliance Review Committee to ban Russia from what it defines as major international competitions for four years.

The decision came at a meeting of WADA's Executive Committee in Lausanne.

"The full list of recommendations have been unanimously accepted," a spokesperson said. 

Not only will Russian athletes be banned from major competitions but government officials will also be barred from attending such events. 

Russia will also not be eligible to host or even bid to host major events during the same time period.

However, Russia will have 21 days to appeal the huge ban, which will not apply to next summer's European Championship, which Russia have qualified for and will host matches in St Petersburg.

UEFA is not defined as a 'major event organisation' with regards to anti-doping breaches, meaning Russia are free to compete at Euro 2020. 

Nonetheless, the news will come as a huge blow to the football team, who hosted the last World Cup in 2018 and made it to the quarter-finals, knocking Spain out along the way. 

Despite the suspension, WADA vice-president Linda Helleland told reporters on Monday that the ban was 'not enough'.

'I wanted sanctions that cannot be watered down. We owe it to the clean athletes to implement the sanctions as strongly as possible.' 

The International Olympic Committee have said they would be willing to allow Russian athletes who can prove they are clean to compete under a neutral flag, as at last year's Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. 

The number of Russian athletes in who competed under the neutral banner at the 2018 Games in South Korea was 168, after the country was banned following their hosting of the 2014 Games in Sochi.  

Russia had been braced for serious sanctions after a joint statement from WADA's influential athletes' committee urged tough steps to tackle the problem of doping. _Agencies

Dhaka/AKA