Euro 2020 excluded from proposed WADA ban on Russia

The Euro 2020 football tournament is excluded from the ban on Russia recommended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after it accused Moscow of falsifying laboratory data handed over to investigators, a source said on Tuesday.

The WADA source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP the European championships were "not a 'major event and not a world championships" so were exempt from the four-year ban from major sporting competitions on Russia proposed by a key WADA committee earlier in the day.

The Russian city of Saint Petersburg is one of 12 locations across Europe scheduled to host matches in next year's tournament. In a statement on Monday, WADA's Compliance Review Committee called for the sanctions, which would see Russia banned from next year's Tokyo Olympics, to be approved at a WADA executive committee meeting in Paris on December 9.

Individual Russian athletes may still compete in events such as the Olympics, but only if they are able to prove they are not implicated in the broader doping scandal, WADA's review committee said.

At the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Russian athletes who could prove they were above suspicion were able to compete under the special designation of "Olympic Athlete from Russia", marching under the Olympic flag. If the sanctions are approved by WADA's Executive Committee, Russia can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.