Mutko's mess

President Putin is known to be loyal to his friends. He's shown that with his friend the cellist Sergei Roldugin, who was named in the Panama Papers as being worth around $2 billion (1.8 billion euros) and the key in a series of off-shore transactions that look a tad too close to the Kremlin for comfort.

Now he's standing by his long-time friend from his years in St Petersburg in the 1990's, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. But Mutko is presiding over a house of cards and surely any good friend wouldn't leave him there to face the barrage of international scrutiny in the wake of the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) findings into state-sponsored doping by the ministry he runs.

Mutko says he won't resign despite the report which names him some 21 times and says he personally ordered the 'saving' of a Russian footballer who turned in a positive result. The report claims that in effect the Russian anti-doping lab would swap urine tests and falsify results. That's a real problem for Mutko as he's the president of the Russian Football Union, chairman of the organizing committee of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and since 2009 has been a member of FIFA's executive committee or Council as its now known.

FIFA says its ethics committee will investigate the allegations against him in the WADA report overseen by Canadian lawyer, Richard McLaren, and if they're satisfied with the evidence appropriate action will be taken and he would, most likely, be removed from his position.

While Russia is arguing about the veracity of the evidence against it and claiming the collective punishment of its 68 track and field athletes who will now be banned from the Rio Olympics is unfair and politically motivated, the report is just the tip of the iceberg of what even Russian media has reported on.

Youth sports doping

Earlier this year the entire Russian under-18 ice hockey team had to be replaced with the under-17 team a day before they headed off to world championships in the US because, according to a Russian hockey website, "a large portion" of the team had tested positive for the recently banned substance, meldonium. It was banned in January and by March this year 27 Russian athletes, including tennis player, Maria Sharapova, had tested positive for it.

Gazetta.ru, an online news service, did an investigation into youth ice-hockey and football in regional areas and found the ice-hockey club Kuzbass and the Rostov football club had placed more than 41,600 euros ($46,400) worth of orders between them for medication including meldonium in February and December 2015.

Gazeta.ru's report also claimed that Olympic youth training centers placed hefty orders for the drug along with other performance-enhancing pharmaceuticals. It claims the Moscow region SBD (Center of Olympic sports) purchased 7 million rubles worth (98,000 euros) for the "improvement of performance of athletes," while the Rostov state-sponsored Olympic Training Center №1 made a similar purchase in 2014. It also found that meldonium was bought by a state-sponsored cycling school in the Samara region in August 2015.

It would be very hard for the Kremlin to argue that this is another example of an anti-Russian politically motivated attack on the motherland as it's a home-grown report that shows the grooming of athletes from a young age into a world of doping by official clubs and sporting centers whose budgets were approved by the ministry of sport.

A question of trust

Despite the appalling revelations, let's give credit where credit is due. There is no doubt that Mutko has done an amazing job for Russian sport and football in particular. He's forged the Russian premier league, he was integral to Sochi getting the nod for the Winter Olympics and Russia hosting the 2018 soccer World Cup. But the litany of scandals that have plagued sport and the ongoing allegations of corruption and state-sponsored doping that have taken place under his tenure leave him in a precarious position. If he is removed from his position at FIFA it will be even more embarrassing.

This isn't going to go away quickly. The Panama Papers which hinted at the Kremlin's involvement and named a man who is not in a key government role was (so far) a one off that had its moment in the lime-light but was easily pushed under the carpet. This, however, is not the same. With more decisions on the Russian Olympic team as a whole in the offing and the World Cup just around the corner, credibility needs to be restored.

If there is to be any faith that Russian sport can clean itself up Mutko must go. If he can't see this himself and do the honorable thing then his powerful friend should have a quiet word and find him another role somewhere far away from sport. Surely a loyal friend wouldn't hang you - and the country's reputation - out to dry on a global stage.