Russia World Cup head Vitaly Mutko has been barred from seeking re-election to FIFA's top decision-making body after failing an eligibility check, people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press.
FIFA's review committee has ruled that Mutko can no longer sit on the FIFA Council because of his role as a deputy prime minister of Russia. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the eligibility checks on Mutko, who is also head of Russia's football federation.
Mutko's exclusion from the election is due to a clampdown on government interference in soccer rather than a separate, ongoing FIFA ethics examination of a World Anti-Doping Agency report that implicates him in Russia's doping cover-ups.