by Bob Walsh
The World Anti-Doping Agency is the international organization that polices international sports for performance enhancing drug violations. That organization just banned Russia from international competition for four years, which includes the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Individual Russian athletes could compete as individuals if they can demonstrate convincingly that they are "clean" but Russian will not be able to field a national team, their flag can not appear and their anthem can not be played.
The in-house Russian anti-doping agency, which has been accused to tweaking their own results, can appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sports within 21 days if they feel inclined to do so. They have announced the intention to do so. Both WADA and the International Olympic Committee assert that the Ruskies engaged in "flagrant manipulation" of their data.
Assuming they can make the cut otherwise, the Russian soccer team will be able to compete in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but will not be able to refer to themselves as a Russian national team, or even use the word Russia in their identification.
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