An international anti-doping commission recommended today that the Russian Athletics Federation be banned from the sport over widespread doping offences, a move that could see the powerhouse Russian team banished from Olympic competition.

An independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) identified what it called systemic failures in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and in Russia “that prevent or diminish the possibility of an effective anti-doping program”.

The report was commissioned to “determine the accuracy” of allegations made in a German TV documentary about Russian athletics last December. The scandal revolves around accusations that money was demanded from top athletes to ‘bury’ medical tests showing drug use.

According to BBC Sports, the report’s co-author, sports lawyer Richard McLaren, believes it shows “a different scale of corruption”, even compared with the ongoing Fifa scandal, saying actual results at international athletics competitions had been changed because of cheating

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