Russia's Controversial Deputy PM Candidate to FIFA Seat
Vitaly Mutko, Russia's controversial deputy Prime Minister tarnished by the McLaren doping report, is a candidate for re-election to the decision-making FIFA Council, UEFA announced on Wednesday.
Although not specifically named, Mutko was sports minister during much of the 2011-2015 period covered in that damaging document which accused "Russian officials within the ministry of sport" including the "minister and deputy minister of sport" of "an institutional conspiracy."
The 58-year-old has denied any wrongdoing, accusing the report which identified "state-sponsored" doping of pandering to "geopolitics."
Barred by the International Olympics Committee from attending the Rio 2016 Games he was promoted to deputy PM by President Vladimir Putin in October.
Mutko, who is also president of the organizing committee for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, is one of five European candidates for a total of five seats on the FIFA Council.
Four of those are for four-year terms with another for two years, made available following the resignation of German Wolfgang Niersbach, who has been banned for one year from all football related activity over a corruption scandal surrounding the attribution of the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
The other four candidates are Hungary's Sandor Csyani, Cypriot Costakis Koutsokoumnis, Dejan Savicevic of Montenegro and Iceland's Geir Thorsteinsson.
All five submitted their candidatures by the December 5 deadline and will now undergo FIFA eligibility checks.
The election will take place on April 5 in Helsinki next year during the 41st Ordinary UEFA Congress.
Source: Agence France Presse
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