The wounds in the international anti-doping community are unlikely to be healed after the Court of Arbitration for Sport put a legal end to six years of the Russian-international doping scandal. Was CAS under influence of the IOC, or is sports law not strong enough yet?

IOC President Thomas Bach made it very clear in his New Year’s speech that politics should be kept out of the Olympics to protect the event’s neutrality. However, it is a paradox that IOC’s characterisation of politicisation only seems to apply to athletes and not the host nations, writes Play the Game’s analyst Stanis Elsborg.

Sporting events in Russia are directly linked to the formation of a new Russian national idea and identity under Putin’s rule and have become an important tool in forming the narrative of the nation and establishing a meaningful relationship between the past, present and future, writes Stanis Elsborg in this analysis on sport and identity in Russia.

This second article in our series on civic contestation of mega-events looks to Russia and the protests that have played out here in spite of the efforts by authorities to stifle and suppress popular resistance.

The 2018 World Cup has been labelled the most expensive World Cup ever, but the exact costs are hard to determine. It is, however, not that hard to find a line of people who benefit from it.

CAS has dismissed the appeals from 45 Russian athletes and two coaches searching to overturn IOC’s decision not to invite them due to involvement in the Russian doping scandal.

28 of the 42 appeals of IOC’s ban on Russian athletes will be upheld, said a CAS decision issued today. The athletes in question are not automatically invited to participate in the upcoming Pyeongchang Games, says the IOC.

After much hesitation, the IOC has taken a clear stance against the overwhelming evidence of systemic doping in Russia. Russia has greater projects in the making than the Winter Olympics, and the ball is rolling towards an uncomfortable FIFA.