2023-04-20 16:43:29
Vienna (PK) – On the strict interpretation of the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in international competitions as “neutral athletes”, the Sports Committee of the National Council summarized today with the votes of the governing parties, SPÖ and NEOS a resolution. The aim is to clarify and to set a retrospective deadline for the definition of military personnel, so that they are excluded from major international events in any case. Sports Minister Werner Kogler said that it was not reasonable for Ukrainian athletes to compete with those who belong to the Russian army.
In this context, an application by the FPÖ to end the sports sanctions once morest Russia and a NEOS application to expand them were rejected.
Motions by the opposition on sports sponsorship, the planned cessation of the TV channel ORF SPORT+, swimming lessons, mountain bike trails and sports funding were postponed.
Sport sanctions once morest Russia
According to the committee resolution, the Minister of Sport should work to ensure that the recommendations recently published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus as “neutral athletes” in international competitions are strictly interpreted and specified. A deadline should be set for the definition of military personnel in order to clearly regulate their affiliation. According to the IOC recommendations, athletes from both countries with connections to the military should remain excluded from international sporting events, as should teams. Both should be defined more clearly by the IOC according to the motion for a resolution tabled by Christoph Zarits (ÖVP) and Agnes Sirrka Prammer (Greens).
Although organized sport is autonomous in its decision-making, according to Sports Minister Werner Kogler, it is important to keep an eye on what is happening and to take a political position. Sports ministers from 35 countries have joined forces on the IOC recommendation to clearly state the starting point of the difficult topic. After all, this is a brutal war of aggression that violates international law, emphasized Kogler. His approach is not to exclude everyone with a Russian passport, but still to identify criteria and conditions so that “neutral” athletes can take part in international competitions. This is a delicate distinction, he said. In his opinion, the concept of a team also needs to be clarified. With regard to the participation of members of the Russian security apparatus, Kogler takes the clear position that it is not reasonable for Ukrainian athletes to compete with them. It is therefore particularly relevant to set a retrospective deadline so that members of the army cannot circumvent the sanctions.
So that sport is not included in propaganda purposes, a differentiated approach should be taken, said Christoph Zarits (ÖVP), who fully agreed with the Vice Chancellor and emphasized that the sports associations decide autonomously. Since Petra Steger (FPÖ) said that athletes who work for fair competition would be politically discriminated once morest, Agnes Sirkka Prammer (Greens) explained that – even if it was tragic for individual athletes – sport is not apolitical and they simply represent the states for which they are running. According to her, the committee motion aims to allow athletes wherever it is possible. In many cases, this is not possible anyway, since individual associations have imposed sanctions independently.
Two related opposition motions were up for discussion, which were rejected. The Liberals speak out once morest the exclusion of Russian athletes from international competitions ( 2898/A(E)). The sanctions once morest athletes in the Russian Federation should be ended, said Petra Steger (FPÖ). She considers it fundamentally wrong and a distortion of sporting competition to exclude “apolitical” athletes. Sport should bring people together, not divide them, she said. According to Martin Graf (FPÖ), the topic should be discussed at EU level. The NEOS, on the other hand, are in favor of maintaining or expanding the sports sanctions ( 3205/A(E)). As long as Russia is engaged in a war of aggression that violates international law, Russian clubs and athletes should remain banned from international sporting events, according to Yannick Shetty (NEOS). The sports sanctions are very efficient because of the importance of sport in Russia. According to the NEOS proposal, Russian athletes should also not be granted visas for entry to events in Austria.
FPÖ initiatives for sports sponsorship and TV sports
An FPÖ initiative was postponed with regard to a legal regulation to be able to deduct the sponsorship of sports clubs by private individuals or companies as a business or special expense ( 3214/A(E)). According to FPÖ sports spokeswoman Petra Steger, numerous associations and clubs would have to worry regarding large parts of their sponsorship income due to the planned discontinuation of the specialist broadcaster ORF SPORT+. The corona pandemic has also dramatically worsened the situation, she said. According to Christoph Zarits (ÖVP), tax breaks are planned for all clubs. Eva Blimlinger (Greens) specified that although no tax relief was planned in relation to sponsorship, there was one for donations – with non-profit status as the starting point. She assumes that a corresponding draft law will be available by the end of May.
In view of the planned discontinuation of the specialist broadcaster ORF SPORT+, the FPÖ mandatary Steger is also asking the sports minister to hold talks with organized sports and the ORF so that sports broadcasts will continue to be broadcast in full on public broadcasting in the future ( 3215/A(E )). If she were hired, there would be a loss in media value, which the mandatary said would be a massive loss for fringe sports, women’s sports or sports for the disabled. In addition, the ORF has a clear legal mandate to ensure comprehensive sports reporting. The preservation of the canal as an important presentation area for sports without a large stage is also the wish of his parliamentary group, said Maximilian Köllner (SPÖ). Eva Blimlinger (Greens) and Katharina Werner (NEOS) said that programming is not the task of politics. This motion was also postponed with the votes of the governing parties.
SPÖ applications for swimming lessons and mountain bike routes
An SPÖ demand for a strategy to maintain and expand the swimming infrastructure, especially indoor pools ( 2121/A(E)), was once more postponed. Swimming lessons in schools should be expanded to enable all children to participate, so the request. The federal government is responsible for securing the framework for this, said Petra Tanzler (SPÖ) in view of the 160,000 children and young people in Austria who might not swim. Like SPÖ parliamentary group colleague Alois Schroll, she recalled the frequency of drowning in children as a cause of death. It is high time to develop a concept. Petra Steger (FPÖ) agreed that the corona pandemic had made the situation worse. Klaus Lindinger (ÖVP) was aware of the problem, and in the course of his application for an adjournment referred to an ongoing catching-up process, but also to the cost-intensive maintenance of the indoor pools.
Apart from routes that have been expressly approved, mountain biking in the forest is generally prohibited under the Forest Act, which is why many athletes are being driven into illegality, criticized SPÖ sports spokesman Maximilian Köllner in another motion for a resolution that was also repeatedly postponed today ( 2977/A(E)). This problem can be solved by bringing together the various federal, state and local models to provide the necessary paths that already have the appropriate infrastructure, he said. Thomas Spalt (FPÖ) also sees an acute need for action in this regard. The adjournment was justified by Lukas Hammer (Greens) with a networking meeting that will take place soon. A strategy should be developed.
NEOS call for reform of sports funding
An initiative to reform sports funding by NEOS was also postponed following the resumption. A reorganization should ensure that in the future there will be no more representatives of funding recipients in the committees for the allocation of funding and that there can be no conflict of interest, according to the basic idea of NEOS sports spokesman Yannick Shetty ( 2924/A(E) ). Petra Steger (FPÖ) was also of the opinion that sports funding should be revised. According to Lukas Hammer (Greens), such a change is quite conceivable, but one should not blame the members for not doing their voluntary work seriously. With the adjournment, he spoke out in favor of an evaluation. (Final sports committee) fan
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