NEWS FEATURE FIFA see no reason for action against World Cup chief organizer Mutko By Arne Richter, dpa

FIFA are at least for now taking no action against 2018 World Cup chief organizer Vitaly Mutko even though he has been banned for life from the Olympics in connection with state-sponsored doping practices in RussiaBerlin (dpa) - FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino are sticking with Vitaly Mutko as chief organizer of next year‘s World Cup although his Olympic life ban is not the best publicity for the ruling football body.Mutko was on Tuesday punished by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) over state-sponsored doping practices at the Sochi Games 2014 in his role as sports minister at the time.But FIFA, which likes to insist on its zero tolerance policy in doping related matters - chose to take no action against the Russian football federation boss, just as it is yet to come to any conclusions regarding alleged doping rules violations of Russian footballers which surfaced during the overall probe."This decision has no impact on the preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup as we continue to work to deliver the best possible event," it said Tuesday night after the IOC ruling.It appears as if Infantino and cash-strapped FIFA are highly dependent on Russia because any World Cup hitch could lead to financial hardship.The FIFA boss only last Friday had a joint appearance with Mutko before the World Cup draw at the Kremlin, with Mutko denying any kind of systematic doping.But FIFA, battered by corruption cases and ongoing criminal probes in the US and Switzerland, could have a massive image problem if Mutko stays on. So could Russia whose President Vladimir Putin may feel obliged to remove Mutko, who is now deputy prime minister, for strategic reasons. Speaking to German ARD television, American Anti-Doping chief Travis Tygart on Wednesday wondered whether the Russian team shouldn‘t be suspended from the World Cup over Mutko‘s role.And German Olympic supremo Alfons Hoermann told Sky TV "It is hard to imagine for me that someone who is no longer welcome at the Olympics plays a deciding role at the football World Cup. It would be a fatal signal from football to world sport."The ball is now with the FIFA ethics commission which in the past has banned officials for lesser offences.But its leadership has been changed by Infantino‘s initiative, just as the chief of the governance commission whose former leader Miguel Maduro prevented Mutko from running for a place on the FIFA council again. German football boss Reinhard Grindel is meanwhile among those who wants all World Cup doping samples examined outside Russia and by independent bodies.But Infantino and medical commission chief Michel d‘Hooghe have partly resisted this move, with FIFA only saying that samples will be examined by World Anti-Doping Agency accredited labs outside Russia.