Russia should be stripped of the 2018 World Cup due to systematic state-sponsored doping that corrupted the 2012 London Olympics, according to MP Damian Collins

RUSSIA is unfit to host the 2018 World Cup, according to campaigning MP Damian Collins.

The chair of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee has spoken out after a report revealed  how Russia’s state-sponsored doping corrupted the 2012 London Olympics.

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Collins said: “These investigations call into question Russia’s suitability to hold major sporting events.

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“There are a lot of big issues with Russia’s World Cup.

“Fifa needs to look at the anti-doping regime Russia has in place for football and other sports and ask if that is going to be sufficient.

“What checks will Fifa put in place to ensure rules are not broken  during the  tournament?”

Part two of Dr Richard McLaren’s investigation into Russian sport also found footballers were among more than 1,000 athletes implicated in systematic cheating directed by the Kremlin.

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McLaren revealed positive tests were falsely declared as negative and Russian athletes were put on steroids designed not to be detected by tests at the London Olympics.

He found 15 Russian medal winners in 2012 had been on these “washout lists”, ten of whom had already been stripped of their gongs because of re-testing of samples and other post-London detection.

McLaren said: “The Russian Olympic team corrupted the London Games on an unprecedented scale, the extent of which will probably never be fully established.”

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Liz Nicholl, CEO of the UK Sport quango which funds Britain’s Olympians, said: “If there is evidence of state-sponsored doping then Russia should be banned from all major games until they can prove their athletes are clean.”

Collins also called for Vitaly Mutko, who led the Russian Ministry of Sport which directed the doping before being promoted to deputy prime minister, to be sacked from Fifa’s executive body.

Collins said: “You would have to question whether Fifa takes the issue of doping seriously if it does not question Mutko or sanction Mutko or require that he stands down from the Fifa Council.”