Nick Harris of the Daily Mail has broken a major sporting story this weekend: the paper reports that Russia's entire, 23-man squad from the 2014 World Cup are under investigation by Fifa over doping concerns.
The report states that all 23 names are among at least 34 footballers named on a list of 1,000 'people of interest' as authorities seek to get to the bottom of a state-sponsored doping programme in Russia. It is unclear as to what action will be taken against any or all of the players, and they came to the attention of Fifa following irregularities in results from urine samples.
The paper first revealed the scandal which led to 111 Russian athletes being barred from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, following the revelations from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, that the Kremlin had overseen the prescribing of performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, while ensuring these were not detected by the swapping of urine samples and by tampering with the samples themselves.
The full report should be read on the Mail's website.
