MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. The status of Russian athletes at the 2020 Olympics will depend on the length of the proceedings in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), head of the Council of Europe’s Sport Conventions Division and member of RUSADA Supervisory Board Sergei Khrychikov told TASS.

"This issue will depend on the length of the CAS procedure," he said. "Now RUSADA [Russian Anti-Doping Agency] has 21 days to appeal, then other organizations will have 21 days to file a protest. And later everything will depend on the length of CAS review. The decision will come into force when the CAS makes the final decision, from that moment four years will begin to expire; until the decision takes effect, all [competitive events] can be held," Khrychikov added.

"The decision does not apply to matches of the UEFA Euro 2020 in St. Petersburg because the current standard of conformity includes world championships and the Olympic Games, while regional and continental championships are not included in the new standard. The next version of the standard of conformity enters into force in 2021, listing European championships and other continental tournaments. But since it is not yet operational, the decision does not apply to the UEFA Euro 2020," he added.

The WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) approved on Monday recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to annul the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) as well as to strip Russia of the right to participate in major international sports tournaments, including the Olympics and World Championships, for the period of four years.

The WADA ExCo also ruled that Russia must not host or bid for hosting any major international sports tournament in the four-year period. Russian state officials as well as the officials of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) have been also banned from attending all major international sports tournaments for the period of four years.

On November 25, the WADA CRC reiterated its previous recommendation for the world anti-doping body’s Executive Committee to strip RUSADA of its compliance status and came up with a recommendation of additional sanctions against Russian sports.

The matches of the 2020 Euro Cup will be held at stadiums in 12 different cities across Europe, namely in London (England), Munich (Germany), Rome (Italy), Baku (Azerbaijan), Saint Petersburg (Russia), Bucharest (Romania), Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Dublin (Ireland), Bilbao (Spain), Budapest (Hungary), Glasgow (Scotland) and Copenhagen (Denmark) between June 12 and July 12, 2020.

Russia’s second largest city of St. Petersburg was granted the right to host three group stage matches and one of the quarterfinals of the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup. The newly-built football arena in St. Petersburg hosted the opening and final matches of the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and also served as one of 12 stadiums across the country hosting matches of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

The over 62,300-seat capacity stadium was laid down in the western part of Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg in 2007 and commissioned in early 2017. It serves as a home stadium for Zenit St. Petersburg football club.

A decision to hold the 2020 Euro Cup, which will be celebrating its 60th anniversary that year, in various European countries instead of in one or two hosting countries was made at the UEFA Executive Committee’s meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on December 6, 2012.

The Final Draw for the 2020 UEFA Euro Cup was held on November 30 in the Romanian capital of Bucharest. Twenty-four national football teams, which have cleared the qualifications round, were divided into six groups with four teams in each. Russia was placed in Group B, and will play against Belgium (in St. Petersburg on June 13), Finland (in St. Petersburg on June 17) and Denmark (in Copenhagen on June 22).