The World Anti-Doping Agency has confirmed it will not appeal the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport to halve sanctions against Russia for doping offences ©Getty Images

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has confirmed it will not appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision in its case with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

WADA said although it was "disappointed" that the CAS Panel did not uphold the four-year ban imposed on Russia for tampering with data from the Moscow Laboratory it would not appeal the decision to halve the sanction.

WADA said it would not appeal the decision as it did not believe this would serve "a useful purpose", because the Swiss Federal Tribunal was not able to consider the "proportionality of the consequences" and was only able to rule on "procedural matters".

In a statement explaining its decision WADA said: "The grounds of appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal are limited to procedural matters such as jurisdiction, the composition of the panel and the right to be heard.

"The Swiss Federal Tribunal does not conduct a review of the merits and would therefore not interfere with the panel's assessment of the proportionality of the consequences.

"As a result, and following unanimous advice from in-house and external legal counsels, WADA strongly believes an appeal would have served no useful purpose and decided to refrain from doing so."

WADA said although it disagreed with the decision of the CAS Panel against RUSADA, an appeal would not serve
WADA said although it disagreed with the decision of the CAS Panel against RUSADA, an appeal would not serve "a useful purpose" ©Getty Images

Last month RUSADA revealed it would not appeal the verdict by CAS despite "strongly disagreeing with the findings in the CAS award regarding the alleged data manipulations".

RUSADA claimed the findings were "based on a flawed and one-sided assessment of the facts and were not sufficiently proven".

WADA initially imposed a four-year package of punishments on Russia in December 2018 before a three-member CAS panel halved the sanctions in December 2020.

Under the ruling by the CAS panel only Russian athletes who meet certain criteria will be able to compete as neutrals at events including the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympics and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

Russia will also be unable to host, or be granted the right to stage, any major events during the two-year period where the sanctions apply and must be stripped of any World Championships it has already been awarded that are due to take place up to December 16 in 2022 "unless it is legally or practically impossible" to do so.