IOC, FIFA, Call For Exclusion Of Russian Teams, Players; NHL Breaks Biz Ties

By Barry Janoff

UPDATED March 1, 2022: Joint statement today from the ATP Tour, WTA Tour and International Tennis Federation:

The international governing bodies of tennis stand united in our condemnation of Russia’s actions and, as a result, are in agreement with the following decisions and actions:

• The WTA and ATP Boards have made the decision to suspend the WTA-ATP combined event, scheduled this October in Moscow.

• The ITF Board has made the decision to suspend the Russian Tennis Federation and Belarus Tennis Federation membership and to withdraw their entries from all ITF international team competition until further notice. This action follows the cancellation of all ITF tournaments in Russia and Belarus indefinitely.

• At this time, players from Russia and Belarus will continue to be allowed to compete in international tennis events on Tour and at the Grand Slams. However, they will not compete under the name or flag of Russia or Belarus until further notice.

February 28, 2022: On the same day that Moscow-born Daniil Medvedev became the No. 1 ranked man in the world by the ATP Tour, the International Olympic Committee executive board recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials not be allowed in international competitions "to protect the integrity of the events and the safety of the other participants."

In addition, FIFA and UEFA have suspended all Russian international and club teams from their respective competitions “until further notice.”

The NHL, which features players from Russia and Europe, said today it “condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and urges a peaceful resolution as quickly as possible.”

The league said, effective immediately, "We are suspending our relationships with our business partners in Russia and we are pausing our Russian language social and digital media sites.

"In addition, we are discontinuing any consideration of Russia as a location for any future competitions involving the NHL.

"We also remain concerned about the well-being of the players from Russia, who play in the NHL on behalf of their NHL clubs, and not on behalf of Russia. We understand they and their families are being placed in an extremely difficult position."

Russian-born NHL players include Alex Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, Nikita Kucherov and Nikita Kucherov.

In a joint statement, FIFA and UEFA said, “Following the initial decisions adopted by the FIFA Council and the UEFA executive committee — which envisaged the adoption of additional measures — FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both  competitions until further notice.
    
"These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the Executive Committee of UEFA, respectively the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters.

“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine.”

The Paralympic Games in Beijing are scheduled to begin March 4.

The IOC and International Paralympic Committee are separate organizations.

Russian athletes currently can not compete under the Russian flag at major international competitions for the remainder of 2022 because of doping violations against the nation, but in the recent Beijing Olympics and the upcoming Paralympics compete under the Russian Olympic Committee.

According to the IOC, “Wherever, in very extreme circumstances, even this is not possible on short notice for organizational or legal reasons, the IOC EB leaves it to the relevant organization to find its own way to effectively address the dilemma described above.

“In this context, the IOC EB considered in particular the upcoming Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and reiterated its full support for the International Paralympic Committee and the Games.”

Regarding Medvedev and other Russian and Belarus players on the ATP or WTA Tours, Seva Kevlych, a member of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation board, told Reuters that Medvedev and other Russian players "should be barred from Grand Slam tournaments and the Russian Tennis Federation barred from the Davis Cup and Billie Jean Cup team events of which they are reigning champions.

"Let (Medvedev) play on the ATP Tour, but Grand Slams are ITF (International Tennis Federation) events and if you lose the possibility to play in Grand Slams he could never be world No. 1.

“He shouldn't play in the French Open, U.S. Open and Wimbledon.”

Russian players on the ATP Tour also include Andrey Rublev, ranked No. 6, Aslan Karatsev (No. 22) and Karen Khachanov (No.25).

The highest ranked WTA players from Belarus are No. 3 Arena Sabalenka and Victoria Azarenka (No. 16).

The highest ranked WTA Russian players include Anastasia Pavlyuchenova (No. 14) and Veronika Kudermetova (No. 24).

WTA players from Ukraine include Elina Svitolina (No. 15) and  Dayana Yastremska.

Svitolina, scheduled to compete this week in the Monterrey Open in Mexico, said today via social media, “We as Ukrainian players requested to ATP, WtA and ITF to follow the recommendations of the iOC to accept Russian or Belarussian nationals only as neutral athletes without displaying any national symbols, colors, flags or anthems.

“Accordingly, I want announce that I will not play tomorrow in Monterrey nor any other match against Russian or Belarussian tennis players until our organizations take this necessary decision.”

Svitolina said she did not blame any of the Russian athletes and paid “tribute to all the players, especially Russians and Belarussians who bravely stated their position against the war. Their support is essential.”

According to the IOC via the organization, "The IOC EB strongly urges International Sports Federations and organizers of sports events worldwide to do everything in their power to ensure that no athlete or sports official from Russia or Belarus be allowed to take part under the name of Russia or Belarus.

“Russian or Belarusian nationals, be it as individuals or teams, should be accepted only as neutral athletes or neutral teams. No national symbols, colors, flags or anthems should be displayed.”

The IOC stressed that, “in very extreme circumstances, even this is not possible on short notice for organizational or legal reasons, the IOC EB leaves it to the relevant organization to find its own way to effectively address the dilemma described above.

"FIFA and UEFA decided together that all Russian teams, whether national or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both competitions."

“In this context, the IOC EB considered in particular the upcoming Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and reiterated its full support for the International Paralympic Committee and the Games.”

According to the IOC, “The Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, World Championships and World Cups and many other sports events unite athletes of countries which are in confrontation and sometimes even war.

“At the same time, the Olympic Movement is united in its sense of fairness not to punish athletes for the decisions of their government if they are not actively participating in them. We are committed to fair competitions for everybody without any discrimination.

“The current war in Ukraine, however, puts the Olympic Movement in a dilemma. While athletes from Russia and Belarus would be able to continue to participate in sports events, many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country.”

IOC, FIFA Slam Invasion Of Ukraine; UEFA, F1 Move Events From Russia

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