Football, rugby, volleyball, handball, but also skiing, biathlon, ice hockey, Formula 1, swimming, boxing or badminton… Measures banning Russian and Belarusian athletes, cancellations of competitions or breaches of sponsorship contracts have been on the rise since Russia invaded Ukraine last Thursday. The federations followed or sometimes preceded the recommendation of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to ban the country of Vladimir Putin from world sport.
Thus, Russia was excluded from all football competitions, in particular the next World Cup, scheduled for November-December in Qatar. The various selections such as the Russian clubs are deprived “until further notice” of any international competition, a joint decision by Fifa and UEFA, the latter also confirming the termination of its sponsorship contract with the gas giant Gazprom , estimated at 40 million euros annually. For the national team, this means that there will be no play-off on March 24 once morest Poland, which had declared its determination to boycott the match anyway. The Russian Football Federation said it “totally disagrees” with this measure which “will have a discriminatory effect on a large number of athletes, coaches, club employees or the national team”.
Russia and Belarus were also suspended from participating in international rugby on Tuesday “until further notice”, world governing body World Rugby said. Russia, which had participated in the World Cup in 2011 and 2019, was still engaged in the last round of European qualifications for the 2023 edition, which will be held in France.
The organization of the 2022 Men’s Volleyball World Cup, scheduled for August and September, has also been withdrawn from Russia. Respectively Olympic and world champions, France and Poland announced last weekend their intention to boycott this event if it were to be held in Russia. The new host country must be announced later, specifies the FIVB. This decision is a new blow for the Russians who won the Olympic silver medal in Tokyo.
Also in team sports, the Euroleague has suspended the three Russian clubs which take part in the flagship competition of European basketball, such as the European Handball Federation, which has announced the exclusion of clubs and selections from Russia and Belarus from all international competitions.
This Tuesday morning, Russian skaters were excluded from all competitions. The Russians will therefore not be present at the world championships in Montpellier, from March 23 to 26. In recent days, the International Ski Federation (FIS) had announced the cancellation of all its competitions in Russia and the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) had banned anthems and flags from Russia and Belarus. In response, the Russians ended the season of their biathletes.
The International Ice Hockey Federation has also decided to suspend all Russian and Belarusian national teams as well as all clubs from these two countries from participating in its competitions in all age categories. Russia, whose presence at the 2022 Worlds in May in Finland is now threatened, has also been deprived of the rights to organize the junior world championship scheduled for 2023.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has canceled all activities in Russia and Belarus, banned these two countries from hosting competitions and ordered that their flags and anthems be banned from all BWF tournaments. For their part, the four major boxing federations will no longer authorize fights in Russia.
Less radical, Fina (swimming), which had already canceled all competitions on Russian soil, allows Russians to continue to line up but as individuals, in no case under the Russian and Belarusian banners. Tennis has not yet taken a position. As the WTA and ATP tournaments in Indian Wells, California approach, the organizations have not communicated their decision, to the chagrin of Elina Svitolina and other Ukrainian players who were surprised by the silence of the WTA, and the contrast with his reaction in the Peng Shuai case.
Committed to the Monterrey tournament, Svitolina refused to face the Russian Anastasia Potapova in the first round and warned that she would maintain this position until the tennis authorities have followed the IOC’s recommendations not to accept “nationals Russians or Belarusians only as neutral athletes”. Russians Daniil Medvedev, world No. 1, Andrey Rublev and Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova, as well as Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (world No. 3) are among the biggest stars of the little yellow ball.
