RUSSIA’s appeal against a four-year sporting ban for doping violations will not be held until May at the earliest and will not take place in public, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) has announced.

Cas said yesterday that a timetable had been established for the filing of written submissions related to the case, but the hearing would not take place before the end of April 2020, and it would be in private “due to the absence of an agreement between all parties concerned.”

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) had wanted the hearing to be in public.

On December 9 last year, Wada’s executive committee endorsed a four-year ban for teams competing in major global sporting events under a Russian flag, including the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games and football’s 2022 World Cup.

The sanctions also extended to Russia hosting international events, imposed for what Wada alleges was the manipulation of laboratory data which had been handed to the global agency in January 2019 under the terms of Russia’s return to compliance.

On December 27 last year, Russia’s national doping agency, Rusada, served formal notice of its appeal to Cas.

Individual Russian athletes who can prove they are untainted by the alleged manipulation will be able to compete as neutrals even if Cas upholds the Wada sanctions.

Russia will be able to compete at Euro 2020 this summer and St Petersburg is able to stage matches, as the European Championship is not a global competition and is run by Uefa rather than Fifa.

International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach said last month that a “watertight” ruling was required to avoid confusion in the run-up to the Games.

“Unfortunately the speed of the procedure is not in our hands,” he told reporters at the IOC Session in Lausanne.

“Of course we hope for a decision as soon as possible in order to be able to make all the necessary arrangements. What is as important for the IOC and the international federations is that we get a decision which does not leave room for any kind of interpretation.

“This must be a watertight decision where everybody concerned knows what to do and what not to do.”