Five sports scandals to look out for in 2017

Doping and corruption scandals have made it another challenging year for leading sports authorities and will continue to make the headlines in 2017. As the countdown begins to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, the pressure is growing on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to act on doping. The spotlight meanwhile remains on Russia, who host football's Confederations Cup in 2017 and is gearing up for the 2018 World Cup, following evidence of state-run doping and calls for an international sport ban.With major events in 2017 including the world athletics championships, the focus will also be on the international athletics federation IAAF, which has to deal with corruption at the top and barred Russian track and field athletes from the 2016 Rio Olympics. The doping scandals have added to the governance crises afflicting both FIFA and the IAAF, two of sport's biggest and most important international federations. FIFA heralded a "new era" following the corruption affairs which engulfed the federation and came to a head in 2015 with the arrests of leading football officials.

Russia doping

Barely a week goes by without new cases of doping in Russian sports, even as the country battles to get back into international athletics in time for the 2017 world championships in London while the International Association of Athletics Federations has already extended its suspension of Russian competitors until at least February.

World Anti-Doping Agency Chief Craig Reedie told reporters in November that Russia is "quite a long way off" being compliant with international doping statutes. Russia has passed a new law making doping a criminal offence, but it has strongly denied accusations in the McLaren report of state-sponsored doping. International experts say the country is in denial, that they are still not getting enough cooperation and that cities closed to foreigners are a doping black hole. After more than 110 Russians were banned from the Rio Olympics in August, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) opened two investigations into Russian sports, including one on doping at the Sochi and the London Olympics.

Russian weightlifting has also been badly hit and Russia has lost the world bobsled championships because of the scandal.

Football corruption

Football's international governing body, FIFA has had a mass clear-out since Swiss investigators detained seven of its officials at their Zurich hotel in May 2015. U.S. prosecutors have not given up their campaign as well and eight key figures in the case will face trials in New York on Nov. 6, unless talks about possible guilty pleas succeed.

Former FIFA vice president Jeffrey Webb, who has pleaded guilty of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering, could be sentenced in May. Two other former FIFA vice presidents, Jack Warner and Nicolas Leoz, could be extradited to the U.S. in 2017.

Forty-one individuals and companies have been charged by the U.S. authorities over alleged transactions of more than $200 million in bribes. Separately, the U.S. and Swiss prosecutors are looking into the award of hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar respectively as well as the activities of former FIFA boss Sepp Blatter.

Cycling power cheats

In April 2016, Femke Van den Driessche, a former European youth cyclo-cross champion from Belgium, became the first person to be banned for using a hidden electric motor, but she may not be the last. Thomas Voeckler, a former holder of the Tour de France leader's yellow jersey, said he was "convinced" that motors have been used by professionals but added that it should be easier to detect than doping and infrared cameras were used on this year's Tour. American former champion Greg LeMond said that all doubts must be ended and suspicions have been cast in the direction of several teams.

Football abuse

British police are investigating hundreds of historical cases of sexual abuse of young footballers by coaches and some top clubs have been implicated. London police said they have more than 100 allegations of abuse at 30 clubs including four now in the Premier League.

Scottish police added 109 cases. Former Crewe Alexandra player Andy Woodward opened the floodgates by telling about the abuse he suffered at the club's academy 25 years ago. Since then, it has been revealed that Chelsea had paid a player to stay silent about abuse and that an accused youth coach at Crewe had also worked at Manchester City.

Southampton have also been drawn into the scandal, which English FA chairman Greg Clarke has called the "biggest" crisis he can recall in football.

Weightlifting's doping strain

Weightlifting, one of the most popular Olympics spectacles, accounted for 48 of the 104 positive tests detected in new analyses on samples from the 2008 Beijing Games and London 2012. The shaming of Kazakhstan's Ilya Ilyin, who won a gold medal at each of the games, highlighted the crisis facing the sport which WADA diplomatically considers "high risk."

China could also be at risk from a motion passed by the IWF this year calling for a ban for any country that has three or more failures from the new tests on London and Beijing samples.