Doping officers constantly monitor Russian footballers, says coach

Moscow, Nov 28 :  Doping officers constantly come on inspection visits to the Russian national football team and they have reported no violations whatsoever, head coach Stanislav Cherchesov told journalists on Tuesday.

Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, who headed an Independent Commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency, announced in June that Russia had a system to cover up acts of doping abuse in football. 

According to McLaren, a special bank with clean doping samples was allegedly in place and was used for samples' substitution, reports Tass news agency.

The Mail on Sunday came up with a report that FIFA was holding investigations in regard to 34 Russian footballers, including 23 from the country's national team at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

In response to all allegations, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said that all doping samples of Russian footballers, collected at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, tested negative for banned performance enhancing drugs.

"I can say about the players mentioned in media reports," Cherchesov said. "We have nothing to do with this, because doping officers come regularly to each team's training session and they come whenever they want, at any hour of the day and collect doping samples from any player they name."

"For instance in Krasnodar, doping samples were collected from all players of the team," the head coach said. "This is why we are open and no complaints in regard to us were voiced."