Russian football official dismisses claim the 2014 World Cup squad is under investigation for doping

Vitaly Mutko, head of the Russian Football Union and the deputy prime minister, branded claims that Russia's 2014 World Cup squad is under investigation as 'nonsense'

The Mail on Sunday claims that the 2014 World Cup squad is under investigation (Getty)

The head of the Russian Football Union has dismissed reports that the country’s entire squad from the 2014 World Cup is under investigation for alleged involvement in state-sponsored doping.

Fifa would not confirm a report in the Mail on Sunday that all 23 squad members were among those being investigated by the sporting body, but did reveal that it is looking into allegations that footballers were among the Russian athletes who were involved in or benefited from “institutionalised” doping between 2011 and 2015.

It did confirm, though, that the entire 2014 squad underwent pre-competition and post-match doping tests at the time, which were all negative.

And Vitaly Mutko, head of the Russian Football Union and the deputy prime minister, has rubbished the Mail’s claims made against the national 2014 World Cup squad.

“There have never been and will never be any problems with doping in our football,” he said. “Our team are permanently being tested, they undergo doping tests after every match.

“They have written some sort of nonsense. Don’t bother reading the English newspapers in the morning.”

The McLaren report, commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and published last year, found that more than 1,000 athletes competing in summer, winter and Paralympic sports were assisted by an “institutionalised manipulation of the doping control process in Russia”.

The Mclaren report claimed more than Russian 1,000 athletes were involved in state-sponsored doping (Getty)

Fifa are continuing with their investigation into the report but said it had not referred to any particular players and "cannot comment on the status of ongoing investigations."

“Fifa has simply confirmed that, in close collaboration with WADA it is still investigating the allegations involving football players in the so-called McLaren report.”

The organisation said it wanted investigations to be completed quickly and that it could not provide further details until then.

Five of the players from the 2014 squad continue to represent the country and have been competing at this week’s Confederations Cup in Russia. The hosts were eliminated on Saturday, after losing to Mexico.

Russia were knocked out of the Confederations Cup over the weekend (Getty)

Fifa added: “As far as the Fifa Confederations Cup is concerned, every participating player has been tested through blood and urine in unannounced controls.

“Both the results of the unannounced and the post-match tests have been negative so far.”