Sport and Diplomacy in the aftermath of the Russia Ukraine war
Sport can play an important role in the reconstruction of people and places and restoring peace, particularly in a form of soft power in periods of conflicts. As Professor Simon Rofe aptly notes:
“States can reach millions if not billions of people across the world as audiences through… MSE [Mega Sporing Events, such as the World Cup]. Given their transnational character they allow for the dissemination of ‘public diplomacy’ – to win the ‘hearts and minds’… on a grand scale and in more pervasive means than individually or nationally focused programmes…When traditional diplomacy (be it international or domestic) does not appear to provide an avenue for change, athletes and others have used the tremendous audiences at sporting events as a platform for their message…”.[1]
The invasion of Ukraine has caused International Organizations, national governments, and sports associations to reflect on, and address, an appropriate response; rais==ing issues of diplomacy, sport policy, and law. At the same time, what organisations may wish to do, and what they can do from a legal, regulatory and/or governance perspective may differ.
On 28 February 2022, only 4 days after the invasion of the Russian military into Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be prevented from competing in international events.
All 30 International Sports Associations which have been examined in the present survey have decided to suspend all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participation in their competitions until further notice.
On 15 July 2022 the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the appeals filed by the Russian Football Association of Russia and four Russian Clubs against the decisions taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee (the UEFA appeal) to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from participation in their respective competitions until further notice have been dismissed and the Challenged Decisions are confirmed.
In the Panel’s view it is unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players have themselves no responsibility, had, by reason of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA, such an adverse effect on them and Russian football generally, but those effects were, in the Panel’s view, offset by the need for the secure and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world.
This survey has no political goal; it exclusively aims to help sport stakeholders globally to be better equipped to address these challenges and develop a clear understanding of how sports organisations could or should react to similar situations, which we sincerely hope never to happen again.
Finally, we sincerely wish to thank all colleagues for their kind availability and for their precious feedback, Aidan Shipman for the thoughtful editing, Khayran Noor for research help, and Antonella Frattini for her patience and professionalism in gathering and putting together the information received from the authors.
Brussels – London, 25 July 2022
Michele Colucci Sean Cottrell
Contributors
V.H. Almeida – C. Anderson – I. Aguiar Gallardo – M. Bałaziński – Y. Bogdanova – R. Brägger –M. Bro – N. Chiriac – S. Civale – M. Colucci – A. Coni – K. Damjanovic – A. Danilevich – L. Darcis – A. Gursoy Artan – L. Hadjidemetriou – L. Hilliger – P. Konitsioti – L. Korbee – S. Ledure – K. Letniowska – M.-A. Lindhardt – A. Lo Surdo S.C. – D. Lo Surdo – K. Ludwig – S. Malvestio – F. Majani – R. Morozov – S. Ng – J. Teles Nogueira – K. van den Oetelaar – F. Vasquez Rivera – K. Šamija – R. Botica Santos – T. Patrão Silva – A. Smirnova – V. Smokvina – Sophia Touiker - J.F. Vandellos Alamilla – S.J. Zambrano Solano – M. Zhurava – T. Yamazaki
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- The Olympic Movement
On 24 February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strongly condemned the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian Government.
The following day, the IOC urged all International Federations to relocate or cancel their sports events planned in Russia or Belarus.
In addition, the IOC EB urged that no Russian or Belarussian national flag be displayed, and no Russian or Belarussian anthem be played at international sports events not already part of the respective World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctions for Russia.
Furthermore, it set up a special “IOC task force”, led by Sergey Bubka, who was constantly in contact with the Olympic Community in Ukraine to coordinate humanitarian assistance.
On 28 February 2022, to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants, the IOC Executive Board (EB) recommended that International Sports Federations and sports event organisers against inviting or allowing the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.
Where this was not possible on such short notice for organisational or legal reasons, the IOC EB strongly urged International Sports Federations and organisers 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. The IOC confirmed that no national symbols, colours, flags or anthems should be displayed.
On the 11 March 2022, IOC President, Thomas Bach, in his “Give peace a chance message” stated that “sports competitions or events should not take place in the territory of the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus. No national or state symbols of any kind of these countries should be displayed at any event organised by the Olympic Movement”.[2] Finally, he concluded by urging “every sports organisation in the world to protect the integrity, fairness and safety of their competitions by not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part or in special circumstances to at least prohibit any identification of their nationality”.[3]
The European Olympic Committees (EOC) immediately endorsed the IOC position condemning the breach of the Olympic Truce. The EOC called on all its Members to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian Olympic Community. Russian and Belarus athletes and officials were banned from participating in the 2022 Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) held in Vuokatti, Finland, between 20-25 March 2022.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) initially decided that the RPC and NPC Belarus would participate as neutrals at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. They would compete under the Paralympic flag and not be included in the medal table. Furthermore, the IPC also decided not to hold any events in Russia or Belarus until further notice.
The day after their initial announcement, however, the IPC Governing Board decided to ban all athletes from the RPC and NPC Belarus for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.
- The International Sports Federations and the implementing measures
All International Sports Federations examined have implemented the IOC Recommendations towards Russian national teams, clubs, athletes, and officials.
All of them have banned – where relevant – the representatives of national and club teams, and officials from Russia and Belarus.
Many Federations have banned, or suspended until further notice, athletes from competing in international competitions. This is the case for World Archery (Archery), World Athletics (Athletics), WBSC (Baseball and Softball), ICF (Canoeing), WFC (Curling), FIG (Gymnastic), ILF (Luge), UIPM (Pentathlon), World Rowing (Rowing), ISU (Skating), FIS (Skying), WORLD TAEKWONDO (Taekwondo), ITTF (Tennis Table), and WORLD TRIATHLON (Triathlon).
Some Federations (FIDE (Chess), FIA (Formula 1), IJF (Judo), World Sailing (Sailing), FINA (Swimming), and ITF (Tennis)), have allowed the participation of Russian or Belarussian athletes as “neutrals” under the flag of the relevant international association.
It is then worth noting that some International Federations such as IBU (biathlon), FIDE (Chess), World Rugby (Rugby), ITF (tennis), have suspended the Russian and Belarus Federations because they infringed the principles enshrined in their Statutes and Regulations.
World Archery (Archery), ICF (Canoeing), FIDE (Chess), WFC (Curling), UCI (Cycling), FIFA-UEFA (Football), FIA (Formula 1), FIG (Gymnastic), IIHF (ICE Hockey), ILF (Luge), FIS (Skiing), ISA (Surfing), WORLD TAEKWONDO (Taekwondo), ITTF (Tennis Table), and ITF (Tennis) have explicitly prohibited Russia and Belarus from bidding for or hosting international events.
All of them have prevented the national Russian and Belarus Federations from hosting international events. Flags and anthems from the two countries have also been banned.
Every single Federation has expressed solidarity towards Ukraine and some of them such as ICF (Canoeing), FIG (Gymnastic), World Rowing (Rowing), World Rugby (Rugby), and ITF (Tennis) have established special solidarity funds for Ukrainian Athletes and their families.
- Appeals before the Court of Arbitration for Sport
It has been rightly underlined that “in the light of “the variety of the sanctions imposed in different sports disciplines on the Russian athletes, the reaction of the Russian sports organizations, clubs and athletes differed drastically depending on the severity of the measures and specifics of the sports discipline. Many of the decisions issued by the international sports federations were appealed by the Russian sports federations, clubs and individual athletes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the internal judicial bodies of the international sports federations”. [4]
CAS provided information about ten arbitral proceedings initiated by the various Russian sports organizations, most of which are pending at the time of publication of this report; one appeal had been withdrawn and one procedure suspended.
In the two arbitration proceedings initiated by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) against the decisions of FIFA and UEFA to suspend all the FUR teams from participating in FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice, namely CAS 2022/A/8709 Football Union of Russia (FUR) v. Union of European Football Associations et al. and CAS 2022/A/8708 Football Union of Russia (FUR) v. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) et al., the Football Union of Russia sought interim relief, namely for CAS to “grant the suspensive effect to the Appeal and/or if needed, order [FIFA and UEFA] to take all necessary measures to reinstate immediately all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, for participation in [FIFA/UEFA] competitions, including, but without limitation, in the competitions (…)”
On 8 April 2022 by the President of the CAS Appeals Arbitration Division issued two orders on Requests for Provisional Measures in the afore-referenced proceedings where the applications for provisional measures filed by the Football Union of Russia were rejected.[5]
On 23 June 2022, CAS upheld the appeals filed by the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF), Maxim Agapitov, Dmitry Chernogorov and Aleksandr Kishkin against the four decisions rendered on 23 May 2022 by the Eligibility Determination Panel (EDP) IWF by which the RWF was “prohibited from nominating any candidate for election to the Executive Board, any IWF Commission and any IWF Committee for the IWF elections to be held in June 2022” and, as a consequence, the three candidates Agapitov, Chernogorov and Kishkin were declared ineligible for the same elections. The CAS Panel set the challenged decisions aside, having found that IWF EDP did not have jurisdiction to prevent the RWF from nominating candidates for the elections.[6]
On 15 July 2022 the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the appeals filed by FUR as well as the appeals of four Russian Clubs against the decisions taken accordingly by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee (the UEFA appeal) to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from participation in their respective competitions until further notice have been dismissed and the challenged decisions are confirmed. [7]
In the Panel’s view it is “unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players have themselves no responsibility, had, by reason of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA, such an adverse effect on them and Russian football generally, but those effects were, in the Panel’s view, offset by the need for the secure and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world”. [8]
- Appeals before the relevant bodies of the International Sports Associations
- The case of the European Tennis Table Union
Particularly interesting, is the case of the European Tennis Table Union. In March 2022, the ETTU Executive Board decided not to invite Russian and Belarusian players and officials to events hosted by ETTU and to ban Russian and Belarusian national symbols, flags and anthems from being displayed until further notice.
The ETTU Executive Board decided that Russian clubs would not be permitted to compete in any European Club competitions for the 2021-2022 season. This included Russian clubs due to compete in the semi-final and final of the Men’s Champions League.
On 27 April 2022, the ETTU Executive Board issued a statement confirming that it had received the decision of the Board of Appeal on the appeal lodged by the Table Tennis Federation of Russia, in which it ruled against the decision to suspend the Russian table tennis clubs Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC from last season’s semi-final and final of the Champions League.
The ETTU emphasized that it had no wish to punish athletes for the decisions of their governments, however the decision to suspend the Russian clubs was taken to protect athlete safety and ensure the integrity of its competitions, in line with the recommendations of the IOC and ITTF[9].
On 16 May 2022, the ETTU stated that the ETTU Executive Board had submitted new information to the Board of Appeal and requested a revision of the judgment on the appeal of the Table Tennis Federation of Russia, Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC regarding the Table Tennis Champions League season 2021-2022[10]. On the date of this Survey no further information is available in respect of the court and the outcome of these proceedings.
- The case of the International Luge Federation
On 2 March 2022, following the IOC Decision of 28 February 2022, FIL among others, passed the following resolutions, declaring that:
- Russia is ineligible to host any FIL sanctioned events.
- All Russian athletes, coaches and officials are excluded from all FIL sanctioned events.
- Russian representatives appointed by the FIL Executive Board to various commissions and Working Groups are suspended from their positions.
- FIL will initiate an investigation into certain derogatory and disturbing social media posts by Russian athletes directed at Ukraine[11].
The decision was appealed by the Russian Luge Federation to the FIL Court of Arbitration and, subsequently, on 7 April 2022, the FIL Court of Arbitration annulled all measures imposed on 2 March 2022 against the Russian Luge Federation.
In response, on 11 April 2022, the FIL Executive Board stated that “the FIL leadership, together with the FIL Legal Committee, will look for possibilities to solve the unsatisfactory situation caused by the arbitration judgment of the FIL Court of Arbitration by means of a possible change in the statutes, which would have to be decided by a 2/3 majority at the ordinary FIL Congress on June 18-19, 2022 in Riga/LAT”[12].
- The national Scenario: A Comparative Analysis
- State Responses
Following the invasion of Ukraine, countries around the world and their national sports organisations moved to take swift action to respond. On 3 March 2022, the UK Secretary of State, Nadine Dorries, and Sports Minister, Nigel Huddleston, with their counterparts in 36 other countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Canada and Poland as well as the President of the IPC, convened a meeting to discuss what action to take against Russia and Belarus. This summit resulted in a joint declaration of the 37 countries. Following the summit, many countries applied sanctions against Russia and Belarus including, trade restrictions travel restrictions and the freezing of assets (Australia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Moldova, The Netherlands, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey).
However, from the responses we have received, it is clear some countries have not yet applied sanctions at a national level (Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and Serbia).
The sanctions implemented at national level against Russia and Belarus are well documented. Here are a few examples of the breadth of sanctions and approaches:
- In the UK over 1,000 individuals and businesses have been imposed and they include travel bans as well as freezing of all assets held in the UK;
- Japan suspended entry visas to Japan for designated individuals related to Russia and froze assets held by designated individuals and entities related to Russia in Japan. The country also took steps to prevent exports of military equipment and other goods;
- The Netherlands appointed a National Coordinator for Sanctions Compliance and Enforcement (NCSH) to strengthen the compliance and enforcement of the sanctions. They have applied sanctions against those in the top 200 sanctions list, and across regulated and non-regulated services such as real estate, art and heritage, business property and non-financial services;
- Switzerland adopted sanctions on goods prohibiting imports and exports, froze assets and introduced travel sanctions, and a ban on take-off and landing of Russian aircraft; and
- In Turkey the government designated the Russian invasion as a “war,” giving it the right under the 1936 Montreux Convention to close the Bosporus Strait - which leads to the Black Sea - to warships. Although this action applies to any naval vessel, it is clearly aimed at Russia’s fleet in case Moscow seeks to reinforce the firepower it already has there. Turkey’s decision is, at least, an important symbolic one in support of Ukraine.
- National Olympic Committees responses
The sports community across the world united to show its opposition to the invasion of the Ukraine. Many of the National Olympic Committees endorsed the IOC recommendations while many national sports federations both prohibited the participation of Russian and Belarussian clubs in their competitions, and took measures directed towards officials and athletes.
Some National Olympic Committee endorsed and followed the IOC recommendations (Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Greece, The Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland) whereas some have not (yet) endorsed these recommendations (Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Malaysia and Moldova).
The measure taken by the following NOC’s go beyond the IOCs recommendations:
- In Australia the NOC has urged member sports to not invite teams/athletes and officials from Russia & Belarus, to rescind any invitations already issued and to withdraw Australian athletes and officials from any sports events where they may be participating;
- In Croatia the NOC gave Ukrainian athletes the opportunity to continue training and playing sports with the help of its member national sports federations, as supported by the European Olympic Committees. 157 athletes from Ukraine are training and preparing in 13 sports in Croatia;
- In Denmark the NOC and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF) has publicly endorsed the ban on Russia and Belarus from all international sports and sporting events. It has also called upon confederations and clubs to not have any sporting relations with the countries in Denmark as well as calling upon the international federations to ban them from all sporting relations;
- Ecuador banned all Russian or Belarussian athletes from any sport tournaments inside Ecuadorian territory. Prohibited participation in sports events organized by Russia or Belarus; and,
- In The Netherlands the Olympic Committee called on its affiliated sports organisations to urge their international federations to move sports events currently planned in Russia or Belarus, and to exclude athletes and sports teams from Russia and Belarus from participating in sports events organised by the international federations elsewhere.
- National sports federations responses
As with the NOCs some national sports federations have responded, often in countries where their NOC and government has implemented or recommended that measures are taken (Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, United Kingdom, Greece & Italy). Where there has not been this approach the national federations unsurprisingly have not acted (Ecuador, Ghana). Examples of the range of measures taken by national sports federations include:
In Croatia the support has been provided by sports federations such as rowing, volleyball, boxing & diving. The Football Federation facilitated the registration of players from Ukraine and, at the same time, reopened the transfer market window for players from Russia and Ukraine in accordance with FIFA guidelines. They also hosted a delegation from Ukrainian football club Dynamo Kiev, which played a charity match against Dinamo Zagreb. Croatian football club Hajduk Split played a charity match against football club Shakhtar Donetsk, both former clubs of Darijo Srna (former Croatian National team captain), while Croatian football club Rijeka played a match against the Ukrainian national team.
The Cyprus Football Association did not permit any international transfers from Russia and Ukraine, outside its fixed registration periods, despite the provisions of Annex 7 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players. It is worth noting Pafos FC, has been owned by two Russians (Sergey Lomakin and Roman Dubov) and Aris Limassol FC, owned by a Belarussian (Vladimir Federov). Another Russian investor has recently acquired control of another small first division club and seems to be interested in making a serious investment in the club. The owners of the first two clubs do not seem to have been in any way affected by the measures adopted internationally against Russians and Russian capital with close ties to the Russian government. Interestingly, a small number of Ukrainians play in Cyprus one of whom plays for a team owned by Russian owners. These athletes have openly expressed, during football matches, their support for Ukraine by carrying the Ukraine flag before and after the match, including the Ukrainian playing in the team owned by the two Russian individuals.
In Denmark the football league adopted FIFA’s temporary regulations. They also urgently adopted a new circular that was specifically targeted at international players from the leagues in Ukraine and Russia and gave all Danish clubs the opportunity to sign contracts with one international player from the Ukrainian and Russian leagues on an ongoing basis until the end of the 2021/22 season.
In Italy the Ukrainian referee Kateryna Monzul was helped to officiate womens’ Serie A matches. The Italian and Ukrainian national synchronized swimming and judo teams have trained together.
In the Netherlands the football association (KNVB) originally decided to boycott games against both Russia and Belarus. However, on 6 May 2022, the KNVB decided to lift the boycott against Belarus. The KNVB mentioned that it had already gone further than UEFA and other countries by boycotting Belarus, but other countries continued to play against Belarus, as a result of which a long-term boycott by the KNVB would have no effect. Moreover, the KNVB mentioned that since the competitors for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification in fact do play against Belarus, this would have made it difficult for the Netherlands to qualify for the World Cup. Therefore, since 6 May 2022, the KNVB has only limited its boycott to Russia.
In Poland the Ministry of Sport and Tourism launched a helpline for sports athletes coming from Ukraine who are currently in Poland or are headed thereto. The helpline is aimed at facilitating athletes in finding accommodation and a base for training. The project is supported by the Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA) and the Polish Football Association (PZPN). Furthermore, as a result of amendments to the relevant regulations adopted by PZPN, Polish football clubs are entitled to register an unlimited number of football players of Ukrainian citizenship, including amateurs, and are not required to present their visa and work permit for such purposes. Additionally, Ukrainian football players can be fielded by their current clubs in particular football matches without any limitations. The Polish National Team supported by PZPN refused to play against Russia in the qualifiers to the FIFA World Cup 2022. This decision was later approved by FIFA who consequently excluded the Russian Team from the competition. On the league level, football clubs tended to welcome Ukrainian players to train at their facilities. Numerous charity matches were played both within professional and amateur football. By way of example, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Football Association and Ukrainian football clubs, two charity matches on the central professional level were organized – a match between Legia Warszawa and Dynamo Kyiv on 12 April 2022 and a match between Lechia Gdańsk and Shakhtar Donetsk on 14 April 2022.
In Portugal: The Handball Federation allowed registration of Ukrainian players, free of charge or registration fees, until 1 April, with a view to their participation in official, national and regional competitions. In addition, it has also enacted other support measures of a non-sporting nature, such as allowing these individuals to enroll and attend higher education and polytechnic courses, in accordance with the federation’s protocols with those institutions. The Volleyball Federation announced that it was available “to receive, at no cost, Ukrainian athletes, namely the Ukrainian Beach Volleyball doubles teams and, in indoor volleyball, the National Under-17 Women’s and Under-18 Men’s teams, so that they could prepare with dignity for the 2nd Qualifying Round of the respective European Championships, being able to extend their stay there for as long as they wanted.
In Spain Sports federations, in collaboration with the Spanish Government, agreed a ban on the participation of national teams, clubs and other sports organizations, as well as athletes selected by Russia, or alternatively a ban on athletes competing under the Russian flag, in all international competitions organized in the Spanish territory. Athletes, clubs and all Spanish sports federations were requested not to take part in any sports events organized in Russia. Where possible, organizations were requested to limit sponsorship and any kind of financial support from entities linked to the Russian Federation. All national and international sports organizations and all relevant entities were requested not to sanction athletes, coaches, officials or public workers who opted to unilaterally terminate their contracts with Russian or Belarussian clubs, and not to prosecute or sanction event organizers who decide to ban the participation of athletes or teams selected by Russia. LaLiga condemned the invasion and displayed banners in stadiums and during the broadcast (national and international) of matches with the slogan “no to invasion”. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ukrainian Premier League to promote football development. On 29 March 2022 LaLiga launched the campaign “Hacemos equipo por la Paz” with its clubs and the Spanish Red Cross, with several initiatives, such as a fundraising, solidarity auctions and collecting of medicines and other essential goods. LaLiga’s clubs have also carried out numerous activities like donations, fundraisings, collecting food and essential goods and providing their buses for the travel of the Ukrainian refugees. The Royal Spanish Football Federation started a crowdfunding campaign and donated sportswear to Ukranian refugees. The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation offered in March 2022 to host Ukrainian athletes, and is hosting 18 Ukrainians (athletes, families and trainers) in Spain for 50 days. The federation is also organizing two races whose registrations will go entirely to help this group of Ukrainian athletes.
In Sweden the Swedish Bandy Federation intends to recommend Swedish clubs to not enter into any employment contracts with Russian players. Russian players already in Sweden, i.e. prior to the issuance of such a recommendation, should not be affected. In addition to the individual sports associations’ response to the Russian invasion, the Swedish Sports Confederation (the umbrella organisation for the Swedish sports movement) has requested 50 million SEK from the Swedish government for the purpose of supporting Swedish clubs’ efforts to provide assistance through activities for the people arriving in Sweden from Ukraine.
In the UK sanctions against Russian businesspeople extended into sport with the two most high-profile sanctioned individuals being Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich. Usmanov was President of the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime (fencing’s world governing body) and through several companies (USM, Megafon and Yota) was a major sponsor of Everton FC. The standout sanctions were imposed on Roman Abramovich. Unlike Usmanov at Everton, Mr Abramovich was the owner of Chelsea FC and, as a result when sanctions imposed on him, Chelsea was directly affected and was forced to find new owners.
Wimbledon went further than the rest of the sporting world and banned all Russian and Belarusian players from participating at the tournament, whether or not they denounced the war.
- Further National Responses – Supporting Refugees
Whilst the sanctions against Russia and Belarus have been wide and far-reaching, the humanitarian support shown for Ukrainian sports entities, athletes and its citizens has also been significant.
Examples of the solidarity with Ukrainians includes:
In Croatia 19,000 Ukrainians have found temporary homes in Croatia with the support of the Government. Sports federations focused on supporting Ukrainian athletes. Each national sports federation will take care of Ukrainian athletes in coordination with the NOC of Croatia.
In Denmark the NOC through its current programs has focused on the integration of refugees from Ukraine through the “get2sport” initiative.
In Italy the Italian Football Federation has eased the procedure to register minors coming from Ukraine. All the registration and insurance fees shall be borne by the Federation.
In Moldova 92 refugee centers across the country with over 90 000 Ukrainian refugees (mainly women & children) have been established in collaboration with the Government and the Moldovan Football Association (FAM). FAM also arranged for players and their families from Dinamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk during their transit through Moldova. FAM, together with its partners, will carry football activities of a mass character for refugee children aged between 5 and 16 years olds.
In Portugal the FPF, called “Each Club, a Family”, the aim of which is to transform the clubs into a supportive platform that facilitates integration into Portuguese society and provides hope to a population in emergency situations after fleeing the war in Ukraine. Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca and his Ukraine-born wife Katerina, both of which had to flee from the war, are the ambassadors of this FPF initiative. The main idea behind this project is for Portuguese clubs to act as a “reception cell”, finding employment for an adult refugee and offering football practice to the household’s children or minors. Dozens have already found a new job and home thanks to this initiative and many clubs are still available to help Ukrainians in need.
In Turkey the Union of Clubs brought 126 Ukrainian kids, whose ages were between 7-16 to Turkey via a charter flight. From their arrival until now these kids have been living at the academies of four Turkish Super League Clubs: Trabzonspor, Çaykur Rizespor, Sivasspor and Kayserispor. Several Ukrainian sports teams (National Deaf Basketball Team, National Deaf Orienteering Team and one football club) who were in Turkey when the war began could not return to their country and are still being hosted in Turkey.
5.5. Impact on domestic athletes
Russian and Belarus athletes have been directly and indirect impacted.
The reaction to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian sports organizations, clubs and athletes differed drastically. Many of the decisions issued by the international sports federations were appealed by the Russian sports federations, clubs and individual athletes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the internal judicial bodies of the international sports federations.
Russian athletes playing abroad have been impacted in different ways, some have had to return to Russia due to visa issues, some sports organisations such as NHL have stated its concern “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”. Some players have been barred from competition such as the case with Wimbledon which was opposed to the position of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Roland-Garros 2022, the French Open.
The situation with Belarus and its athletes are similar to that of Russia. Due to the IOC determined the multiple cases of discrimination in Belarusian sport and has come to the conclusion that the current NOC Bealrus leadership has not appropriately protected the Belarusian athletes from political discrimination. This resulted two packages of provisional measures were implemented by the IOC towards NOC Belarus, including the measure of non-recognition of Viktor Lukashenko to be an elected NOC President.
5.6. Sport in time of war crisis: looking back at history
Some Olympics Games, such as the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Berlin, saw countries threaten to pull out, before deciding to participate. World Wars I and II forced the cancellation of three Olympic Games in 1916, 1940 and 1944. Germany and Japan were banned in 1948 because of their roles in WWII. The same happened to South Africa during the era of apartheid and, more recently, Russia was banned in 2020, because of the infamous doping scandal although individual athletes were ultimately allowed to take part in international competitions under a neutral flag and designation.
Six times, however, countries officially boycotted the Olympic Games, with as few as three countries refusing to compete in 1964 and as many as 65 nations staying home in 1980.[13]
Besides the Olympic Games, most of the countries in this survey did not have any previous precedent for how to deal with such a war crisis.
However, Denmark, Malaysia referred to events that may have relevance:
On 30 May 1992 Denmark was added into the European Football Championship, following a sporting boycott of Serbia and Montenegro after the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 757, which called on all Member States to take various measures against the remaining vestiges of the former Yugoslavia, i.e. Serbia and Montenegro. Unlike the other embargo areas (trade, capital transfers, transport, etc.), the Danish Government did not introduce any penalties/sanctions for failure to abide by the request in the resolution text to back a sporting boycott of Serbia and Montenegro, but at the same time recommended that the resolution be complied with. DIF decided to follow the sporting boycott as recommended by the United Nations and the Danish Parliament, announcing in this regard that the Danish sports community should take social responsibility by complying with Parliament’s foreign policy line. In these circumstances, DIF instructed its special confederations and their members to follow the text of the resolution, but only as far as the instruction would apply to athletes representing “Yugoslavia”.
In in 2019, Malaysia was stripped of the right to host the World Para Swimming Championships because of the Government’s refusal to allow Israeli athletes to participate. Again, in November 2021, the World Men’s Team Squash Championship scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur from 7-12 December 2021 was cancelled after the Government of Malaysia refused to allow Israeli athletes to take part. The Olympic Council of Malaysia had tried to obtain special permission for these athletes but was unsuccessful. Following the cancellation of the Squash Championship, the IOC in December 2021 threatened to ban countries from hosting major events if they refused to allow athletes from certain countries to compete for political reasons. Since then, the Olympic Council of Malaysia has been proactive and has prepared a paper to the Cabinet of Malaysia on the implications of defying the IOC warning.
5.7. Impact on sponsorship agreements
A few countries did not have many if any Russian or Belarusian sponsors including Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Ecuador, Greece. Others took specific actions against one or more Russian sponsors.
In the UK, for instance, some organisations suspended their sponsorship arrangements with Russian companies. Manchester United moved quickly to terminate their contract with Aeroflot, and Everton eventually suspended their sponsorship contracts with Russian companies linked to a sanctioned individual.
In Italy AC Milan interrupted its partnership with a local sponsor, the Russian betting online company FonBet.
In Spain: Real Madrid cancelled the regional sponsorship contract with the Russian betting company “Fonbet” and decided to donate through its foundation €1m and 13,000 items of clothing and sporting equipment to alleviate the humanitarian needs of those displaced in Ukrainian. FC Barcelona, to date, maintains Russian betting company “1xBET” as one of their global sponsors.
In Switzerland: a first division ice hockey club EV Zug suspended it sponsorship agreement with “Nord Stream AG”, a Swiss-based company with close connections to Russian “Gazprom”.
Finally, the sports associations the European Handball Federation Champions League announced that clubs were released of their implementation obligations related to the sponsorship with “Nord Stream 2 AG”. The company was granted so-called provisional deferment of debt in accordance with arts. 293a ss. of the Swiss Federal Act on Debt Collection and Bankruptcy (Swiss Classified Compilation no. SR 281.1) by a court ruling of 10 May 2022 until 10 September 2022.
Conclusions
150 days have passed since the beginning of Russia - Ukraine war which threatens the existence of a nation and, unfortunately, its destructive effects will last for generations. While the war is having a substantial impact on the social, economic and political conditions of the countries involved – and not only them - the sporting world has taken a significantly hit as well. It has been rightly said that “Sporting activities invariably become collateral damage during any geopolitical crisis”.[14]The present survey has clearly showed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is no exception.
This report highlights the far-reaching impact of the invasion of the Ukraine has had at international and domestically around the world. The action taken by the world’s governments, sports federations at national and international level, and at club/team level has differing legal and regulatory implications.
The speed at which these decisions had to be taken comes with obvious risks, that have already been and surely still will be subject to legal challenges as the basis for the decisions are scrutinised. For example, it is likely that we will see more cases brought against sports institutions, as the Ukrainian football club, Shakhtar Donetsk, did against the FIFA ruling allowing foreign players to unilaterally suspend their contracts in the Ukraine. They are seeking up to €50million in damages according to reports.[15]
All 30 examined International Sports Associations have decided to suspend the Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participation in their competitions until further notice. Only history will show the effectiveness of such measures. However, particularly significant is the fact that recently the Court of Arbitration for Sport has already decided that FIFA and UEFA were legitimate to suspend Russian clubs from their competitions in order to protect the integrity of the game following the IOC recommendations.
What precedent the response to the invasion sets for the sports institutions for future conflict situations in other parts of the world remains to be seen but we hope that this survey will provide a helpful reference document to better understand what is happening across sport at this moment in time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE.. 18
THE EUROPEAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE. 28
INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE. 31
APPEALS BEFORE CAS AGAINST THE IOC DECISION.. 33
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS. 37
ATHLETICS – WORLD ATHLETICS. 40
BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL – WBSC.. 44
TAEKWONDO – WORLD TAEKWONDO.. 107
TENNIS TABLE – ITTF – ETTF. 108
TRIATHLON – WORLD TRIATHLON.. 119
NATIONAL SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS. 123
REPUBLICA ORIENTAL DEL URUGUAY.. 201
International Sports Federations and measures against Russia and Belarus. 203
READ AND DOWNLOAD THE FULL REPORT HERE
Executive Summary
Sport can play an important role in the reconstruction of people and places and restoring peace, particularly in a form of soft power in periods of conflicts. As Professor Simon Rofe aptly notes:
“States can reach millions if not billions of people across the world as audiences through… MSE [Mega Sporing Events, such as the World Cup]. Given their transnational character they allow for the dissemination of ‘public diplomacy’ – to win the ‘hearts and minds’… on a grand scale and in more pervasive means than individually or nationally focused programmes…When traditional diplomacy (be it international or domestic) does not appear to provide an avenue for change, athletes and others have used the tremendous audiences at sporting events as a platform for their message…”.[1]
The invasion of Ukraine has caused International Organizations, national governments, and sports associations to reflect on, and address, an appropriate response; rais==ing issues of diplomacy, sport policy, and law. At the same time, what organisations may wish to do, and what they can do from a legal, regulatory and/or governance perspective may differ.
On 28 February 2022, only 4 days after the invasion of the Russian military into Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be prevented from competing in international events.
All 30 International Sports Associations which have been examined in the present survey have decided to suspend all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participation in their competitions until further notice.
On 15 July 2022 the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the appeals filed by the Russian Football Association of Russia and four Russian Clubs against the decisions taken by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee (the UEFA appeal) to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from participation in their respective competitions until further notice have been dismissed and the Challenged Decisions are confirmed.
In the Panel’s view it is unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players have themselves no responsibility, had, by reason of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA, such an adverse effect on them and Russian football generally, but those effects were, in the Panel’s view, offset by the need for the secure and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world.
This survey has no political goal; it exclusively aims to help sport stakeholders globally to be better equipped to address these challenges and develop a clear understanding of how sports organisations could or should react to similar situations, which we sincerely hope never to happen again.
Finally, we sincerely wish to thank all colleagues for their kind availability and for their precious feedback, Aidan Shipman for the thoughtful editing, Khayran Noor for research help, and Antonella Frattini for her patience and professionalism in gathering and putting together the information received from the authors.
Brussels – London, 25 July 2022
Michele Colucci Sean Cottrell
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- The Olympic Movement
On 24 February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) strongly condemned the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian Government.
The following day, the IOC urged all International Federations to relocate or cancel their sports events planned in Russia or Belarus.
In addition, the IOC EB urged that no Russian or Belarussian national flag be displayed, and no Russian or Belarussian anthem be played at international sports events not already part of the respective World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctions for Russia.
Furthermore, it set up a special “IOC task force”, led by Sergey Bubka, who was constantly in contact with the Olympic Community in Ukraine to coordinate humanitarian assistance.
On 28 February 2022, to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants, the IOC Executive Board (EB) recommended that International Sports Federations and sports event organisers against inviting or allowing the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions.
Where this was not possible on such short notice for organisational or legal reasons, the IOC EB strongly urged International Sports Federations and organisers 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. The IOC confirmed that no national symbols, colours, flags or anthems should be displayed.
On the 11 March 2022, IOC President, Thomas Bach, in his “Give peace a chance message” stated that “sports competitions or events should not take place in the territory of the Russian Federation or the Republic of Belarus. No national or state symbols of any kind of these countries should be displayed at any event organised by the Olympic Movement”.[2] Finally, he concluded by urging “every sports organisation in the world to protect the integrity, fairness and safety of their competitions by not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part or in special circumstances to at least prohibit any identification of their nationality”.[3]
The European Olympic Committees (EOC) immediately endorsed the IOC position condemning the breach of the Olympic Truce. The EOC called on all its Members to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian Olympic Community. Russian and Belarus athletes and officials were banned from participating in the 2022 Winter European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) held in Vuokatti, Finland, between 20-25 March 2022.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) initially decided that the RPC and NPC Belarus would participate as neutrals at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. They would compete under the Paralympic flag and not be included in the medal table. Furthermore, the IPC also decided not to hold any events in Russia or Belarus until further notice.
The day after their initial announcement, however, the IPC Governing Board decided to ban all athletes from the RPC and NPC Belarus for the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games.
- The International Sports Federations and the implementing measures
All International Sports Federations examined have implemented the IOC Recommendations towards Russian national teams, clubs, athletes, and officials.
All of them have banned – where relevant – the representatives of national and club teams, and officials from Russia and Belarus.
Many Federations have banned, or suspended until further notice, athletes from competing in international competitions. This is the case for World Archery (Archery), World Athletics (Athletics), WBSC (Baseball and Softball), ICF (Canoeing), WFC (Curling), FIG (Gymnastic), ILF (Luge), UIPM (Pentathlon), World Rowing (Rowing), ISU (Skating), FIS (Skying), WORLD TAEKWONDO (Taekwondo), ITTF (Tennis Table), and WORLD TRIATHLON (Triathlon).
Some Federations (FIDE (Chess), FIA (Formula 1), IJF (Judo), World Sailing (Sailing), FINA (Swimming), and ITF (Tennis)), have allowed the participation of Russian or Belarussian athletes as “neutrals” under the flag of the relevant international association.
It is then worth noting that some International Federations such as IBU (biathlon), FIDE (Chess), World Rugby (Rugby), ITF (tennis), have suspended the Russian and Belarus Federations because they infringed the principles enshrined in their Statutes and Regulations.
World Archery (Archery), ICF (Canoeing), FIDE (Chess), WFC (Curling), UCI (Cycling), FIFA-UEFA (Football), FIA (Formula 1), FIG (Gymnastic), IIHF (ICE Hockey), ILF (Luge), FIS (Skiing), ISA (Surfing), WORLD TAEKWONDO (Taekwondo), ITTF (Tennis Table), and ITF (Tennis) have explicitly prohibited Russia and Belarus from bidding for or hosting international events.
All of them have prevented the national Russian and Belarus Federations from hosting international events. Flags and anthems from the two countries have also been banned.
Every single Federation has expressed solidarity towards Ukraine and some of them such as ICF (Canoeing), FIG (Gymnastic), World Rowing (Rowing), World Rugby (Rugby), and ITF (Tennis) have established special solidarity funds for Ukrainian Athletes and their families.
- Appeals before the Court of Arbitration for Sport
It has been rightly underlined that “in the light of “the variety of the sanctions imposed in different sports disciplines on the Russian athletes, the reaction of the Russian sports organizations, clubs and athletes differed drastically depending on the severity of the measures and specifics of the sports discipline. Many of the decisions issued by the international sports federations were appealed by the Russian sports federations, clubs and individual athletes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the internal judicial bodies of the international sports federations”. [4]
CAS provided information about ten arbitral proceedings initiated by the various Russian sports organizations, most of which are pending at the time of publication of this report; one appeal had been withdrawn and one procedure suspended.
In the two arbitration proceedings initiated by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) against the decisions of FIFA and UEFA to suspend all the FUR teams from participating in FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice, namely CAS 2022/A/8709 Football Union of Russia (FUR) v. Union of European Football Associations et al. and CAS 2022/A/8708 Football Union of Russia (FUR) v. Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) et al., the Football Union of Russia sought interim relief, namely for CAS to “grant the suspensive effect to the Appeal and/or if needed, order [FIFA and UEFA] to take all necessary measures to reinstate immediately all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, for participation in [FIFA/UEFA] competitions, including, but without limitation, in the competitions (…)”
On 8 April 2022 by the President of the CAS Appeals Arbitration Division issued two orders on Requests for Provisional Measures in the afore-referenced proceedings where the applications for provisional measures filed by the Football Union of Russia were rejected.[5]
On 23 June 2022, CAS upheld the appeals filed by the Russian Weightlifting Federation (RWF), Maxim Agapitov, Dmitry Chernogorov and Aleksandr Kishkin against the four decisions rendered on 23 May 2022 by the Eligibility Determination Panel (EDP) IWF by which the RWF was “prohibited from nominating any candidate for election to the Executive Board, any IWF Commission and any IWF Committee for the IWF elections to be held in June 2022” and, as a consequence, the three candidates Agapitov, Chernogorov and Kishkin were declared ineligible for the same elections. The CAS Panel set the challenged decisions aside, having found that IWF EDP did not have jurisdiction to prevent the RWF from nominating candidates for the elections.[6]
On 15 July 2022 the Court of Arbitration for Sport announced that the appeals filed by FUR as well as the appeals of four Russian Clubs against the decisions taken accordingly by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee (the UEFA appeal) to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from participation in their respective competitions until further notice have been dismissed and the challenged decisions are confirmed. [7]
In the Panel’s view it is “unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players have themselves no responsibility, had, by reason of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA, such an adverse effect on them and Russian football generally, but those effects were, in the Panel’s view, offset by the need for the secure and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world”. [8]
- Appeals before the relevant bodies of the International Sports Associations
- The case of the European Tennis Table Union
Particularly interesting, is the case of the European Tennis Table Union. In March 2022, the ETTU Executive Board decided not to invite Russian and Belarusian players and officials to events hosted by ETTU and to ban Russian and Belarusian national symbols, flags and anthems from being displayed until further notice.
The ETTU Executive Board decided that Russian clubs would not be permitted to compete in any European Club competitions for the 2021-2022 season. This included Russian clubs due to compete in the semi-final and final of the Men’s Champions League.
On 27 April 2022, the ETTU Executive Board issued a statement confirming that it had received the decision of the Board of Appeal on the appeal lodged by the Table Tennis Federation of Russia, in which it ruled against the decision to suspend the Russian table tennis clubs Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC from last season’s semi-final and final of the Champions League.
The ETTU emphasized that it had no wish to punish athletes for the decisions of their governments, however the decision to suspend the Russian clubs was taken to protect athlete safety and ensure the integrity of its competitions, in line with the recommendations of the IOC and ITTF[9].
On 16 May 2022, the ETTU stated that the ETTU Executive Board had submitted new information to the Board of Appeal and requested a revision of the judgment on the appeal of the Table Tennis Federation of Russia, Fakel Gazprom Orenburg and TTSC UMMC regarding the Table Tennis Champions League season 2021-2022[10]. On the date of this Survey no further information is available in respect of the court and the outcome of these proceedings.
- The case of the International Luge Federation
On 2 March 2022, following the IOC Decision of 28 February 2022, FIL among others, passed the following resolutions, declaring that:
- Russia is ineligible to host any FIL sanctioned events.
- All Russian athletes, coaches and officials are excluded from all FIL sanctioned events.
- Russian representatives appointed by the FIL Executive Board to various commissions and Working Groups are suspended from their positions.
- FIL will initiate an investigation into certain derogatory and disturbing social media posts by Russian athletes directed at Ukraine[11].
The decision was appealed by the Russian Luge Federation to the FIL Court of Arbitration and, subsequently, on 7 April 2022, the FIL Court of Arbitration annulled all measures imposed on 2 March 2022 against the Russian Luge Federation.
In response, on 11 April 2022, the FIL Executive Board stated that “the FIL leadership, together with the FIL Legal Committee, will look for possibilities to solve the unsatisfactory situation caused by the arbitration judgment of the FIL Court of Arbitration by means of a possible change in the statutes, which would have to be decided by a 2/3 majority at the ordinary FIL Congress on June 18-19, 2022 in Riga/LAT”[12].
- The national Scenario: A Comparative Analysis
- State Responses
Following the invasion of Ukraine, countries around the world and their national sports organisations moved to take swift action to respond. On 3 March 2022, the UK Secretary of State, Nadine Dorries, and Sports Minister, Nigel Huddleston, with their counterparts in 36 other countries, including the United States, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Canada and Poland as well as the President of the IPC, convened a meeting to discuss what action to take against Russia and Belarus. This summit resulted in a joint declaration of the 37 countries. Following the summit, many countries applied sanctions against Russia and Belarus including, trade restrictions travel restrictions and the freezing of assets (Australia, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Greece, Italy, Moldova, The Netherlands, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Turkey).
However, from the responses we have received, it is clear some countries have not yet applied sanctions at a national level (Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria and Serbia).
The sanctions implemented at national level against Russia and Belarus are well documented. Here are a few examples of the breadth of sanctions and approaches:
- In the UK over 1,000 individuals and businesses have been imposed and they include travel bans as well as freezing of all assets held in the UK;
- Japan suspended entry visas to Japan for designated individuals related to Russia and froze assets held by designated individuals and entities related to Russia in Japan. The country also took steps to prevent exports of military equipment and other goods;
- The Netherlands appointed a National Coordinator for Sanctions Compliance and Enforcement (NCSH) to strengthen the compliance and enforcement of the sanctions. They have applied sanctions against those in the top 200 sanctions list, and across regulated and non-regulated services such as real estate, art and heritage, business property and non-financial services;
- Switzerland adopted sanctions on goods prohibiting imports and exports, froze assets and introduced travel sanctions, and a ban on take-off and landing of Russian aircraft; and
- In Turkey the government designated the Russian invasion as a “war,” giving it the right under the 1936 Montreux Convention to close the Bosporus Strait - which leads to the Black Sea - to warships. Although this action applies to any naval vessel, it is clearly aimed at Russia’s fleet in case Moscow seeks to reinforce the firepower it already has there. Turkey’s decision is, at least, an important symbolic one in support of Ukraine.
- National Olympic Committees responses
The sports community across the world united to show its opposition to the invasion of the Ukraine. Many of the National Olympic Committees endorsed the IOC recommendations while many national sports federations both prohibited the participation of Russian and Belarussian clubs in their competitions, and took measures directed towards officials and athletes.
Some National Olympic Committee endorsed and followed the IOC recommendations (Australia, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Greece, The Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and Switzerland) whereas some have not (yet) endorsed these recommendations (Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Ghana, Malaysia and Moldova).
The measure taken by the following NOC’s go beyond the IOCs recommendations:
- In Australia the NOC has urged member sports to not invite teams/athletes and officials from Russia & Belarus, to rescind any invitations already issued and to withdraw Australian athletes and officials from any sports events where they may be participating;
- In Croatia the NOC gave Ukrainian athletes the opportunity to continue training and playing sports with the help of its member national sports federations, as supported by the European Olympic Committees. 157 athletes from Ukraine are training and preparing in 13 sports in Croatia;
- In Denmark the NOC and Sports Confederation of Denmark (DIF) has publicly endorsed the ban on Russia and Belarus from all international sports and sporting events. It has also called upon confederations and clubs to not have any sporting relations with the countries in Denmark as well as calling upon the international federations to ban them from all sporting relations;
- Ecuador banned all Russian or Belarussian athletes from any sport tournaments inside Ecuadorian territory. Prohibited participation in sports events organized by Russia or Belarus; and,
- In The Netherlands the Olympic Committee called on its affiliated sports organisations to urge their international federations to move sports events currently planned in Russia or Belarus, and to exclude athletes and sports teams from Russia and Belarus from participating in sports events organised by the international federations elsewhere.
- National sports federations responses
As with the NOCs some national sports federations have responded, often in countries where their NOC and government has implemented or recommended that measures are taken (Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, United Kingdom, Greece & Italy). Where there has not been this approach the national federations unsurprisingly have not acted (Ecuador, Ghana). Examples of the range of measures taken by national sports federations include:
In Croatia the support has been provided by sports federations such as rowing, volleyball, boxing & diving. The Football Federation facilitated the registration of players from Ukraine and, at the same time, reopened the transfer market window for players from Russia and Ukraine in accordance with FIFA guidelines. They also hosted a delegation from Ukrainian football club Dynamo Kiev, which played a charity match against Dinamo Zagreb. Croatian football club Hajduk Split played a charity match against football club Shakhtar Donetsk, both former clubs of Darijo Srna (former Croatian National team captain), while Croatian football club Rijeka played a match against the Ukrainian national team.
The Cyprus Football Association did not permit any international transfers from Russia and Ukraine, outside its fixed registration periods, despite the provisions of Annex 7 of the FIFA Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players. It is worth noting Pafos FC, has been owned by two Russians (Sergey Lomakin and Roman Dubov) and Aris Limassol FC, owned by a Belarussian (Vladimir Federov). Another Russian investor has recently acquired control of another small first division club and seems to be interested in making a serious investment in the club. The owners of the first two clubs do not seem to have been in any way affected by the measures adopted internationally against Russians and Russian capital with close ties to the Russian government. Interestingly, a small number of Ukrainians play in Cyprus one of whom plays for a team owned by Russian owners. These athletes have openly expressed, during football matches, their support for Ukraine by carrying the Ukraine flag before and after the match, including the Ukrainian playing in the team owned by the two Russian individuals.
In Denmark the football league adopted FIFA’s temporary regulations. They also urgently adopted a new circular that was specifically targeted at international players from the leagues in Ukraine and Russia and gave all Danish clubs the opportunity to sign contracts with one international player from the Ukrainian and Russian leagues on an ongoing basis until the end of the 2021/22 season.
In Italy the Ukrainian referee Kateryna Monzul was helped to officiate womens’ Serie A matches. The Italian and Ukrainian national synchronized swimming and judo teams have trained together.
In the Netherlands the football association (KNVB) originally decided to boycott games against both Russia and Belarus. However, on 6 May 2022, the KNVB decided to lift the boycott against Belarus. The KNVB mentioned that it had already gone further than UEFA and other countries by boycotting Belarus, but other countries continued to play against Belarus, as a result of which a long-term boycott by the KNVB would have no effect. Moreover, the KNVB mentioned that since the competitors for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification in fact do play against Belarus, this would have made it difficult for the Netherlands to qualify for the World Cup. Therefore, since 6 May 2022, the KNVB has only limited its boycott to Russia.
In Poland the Ministry of Sport and Tourism launched a helpline for sports athletes coming from Ukraine who are currently in Poland or are headed thereto. The helpline is aimed at facilitating athletes in finding accommodation and a base for training. The project is supported by the Polish Anti-Doping Agency (POLADA) and the Polish Football Association (PZPN). Furthermore, as a result of amendments to the relevant regulations adopted by PZPN, Polish football clubs are entitled to register an unlimited number of football players of Ukrainian citizenship, including amateurs, and are not required to present their visa and work permit for such purposes. Additionally, Ukrainian football players can be fielded by their current clubs in particular football matches without any limitations. The Polish National Team supported by PZPN refused to play against Russia in the qualifiers to the FIFA World Cup 2022. This decision was later approved by FIFA who consequently excluded the Russian Team from the competition. On the league level, football clubs tended to welcome Ukrainian players to train at their facilities. Numerous charity matches were played both within professional and amateur football. By way of example, in collaboration with the Ukrainian Football Association and Ukrainian football clubs, two charity matches on the central professional level were organized – a match between Legia Warszawa and Dynamo Kyiv on 12 April 2022 and a match between Lechia Gdańsk and Shakhtar Donetsk on 14 April 2022.
In Portugal: The Handball Federation allowed registration of Ukrainian players, free of charge or registration fees, until 1 April, with a view to their participation in official, national and regional competitions. In addition, it has also enacted other support measures of a non-sporting nature, such as allowing these individuals to enroll and attend higher education and polytechnic courses, in accordance with the federation’s protocols with those institutions. The Volleyball Federation announced that it was available “to receive, at no cost, Ukrainian athletes, namely the Ukrainian Beach Volleyball doubles teams and, in indoor volleyball, the National Under-17 Women’s and Under-18 Men’s teams, so that they could prepare with dignity for the 2nd Qualifying Round of the respective European Championships, being able to extend their stay there for as long as they wanted.
In Spain Sports federations, in collaboration with the Spanish Government, agreed a ban on the participation of national teams, clubs and other sports organizations, as well as athletes selected by Russia, or alternatively a ban on athletes competing under the Russian flag, in all international competitions organized in the Spanish territory. Athletes, clubs and all Spanish sports federations were requested not to take part in any sports events organized in Russia. Where possible, organizations were requested to limit sponsorship and any kind of financial support from entities linked to the Russian Federation. All national and international sports organizations and all relevant entities were requested not to sanction athletes, coaches, officials or public workers who opted to unilaterally terminate their contracts with Russian or Belarussian clubs, and not to prosecute or sanction event organizers who decide to ban the participation of athletes or teams selected by Russia. LaLiga condemned the invasion and displayed banners in stadiums and during the broadcast (national and international) of matches with the slogan “no to invasion”. They signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ukrainian Premier League to promote football development. On 29 March 2022 LaLiga launched the campaign “Hacemos equipo por la Paz” with its clubs and the Spanish Red Cross, with several initiatives, such as a fundraising, solidarity auctions and collecting of medicines and other essential goods. LaLiga’s clubs have also carried out numerous activities like donations, fundraisings, collecting food and essential goods and providing their buses for the travel of the Ukrainian refugees. The Royal Spanish Football Federation started a crowdfunding campaign and donated sportswear to Ukranian refugees. The Royal Spanish Athletics Federation offered in March 2022 to host Ukrainian athletes, and is hosting 18 Ukrainians (athletes, families and trainers) in Spain for 50 days. The federation is also organizing two races whose registrations will go entirely to help this group of Ukrainian athletes.
In Sweden the Swedish Bandy Federation intends to recommend Swedish clubs to not enter into any employment contracts with Russian players. Russian players already in Sweden, i.e. prior to the issuance of such a recommendation, should not be affected. In addition to the individual sports associations’ response to the Russian invasion, the Swedish Sports Confederation (the umbrella organisation for the Swedish sports movement) has requested 50 million SEK from the Swedish government for the purpose of supporting Swedish clubs’ efforts to provide assistance through activities for the people arriving in Sweden from Ukraine.
In the UK sanctions against Russian businesspeople extended into sport with the two most high-profile sanctioned individuals being Alisher Usmanov and Roman Abramovich. Usmanov was President of the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime (fencing’s world governing body) and through several companies (USM, Megafon and Yota) was a major sponsor of Everton FC. The standout sanctions were imposed on Roman Abramovich. Unlike Usmanov at Everton, Mr Abramovich was the owner of Chelsea FC and, as a result when sanctions imposed on him, Chelsea was directly affected and was forced to find new owners.
Wimbledon went further than the rest of the sporting world and banned all Russian and Belarusian players from participating at the tournament, whether or not they denounced the war.
- Further National Responses – Supporting Refugees
Whilst the sanctions against Russia and Belarus have been wide and far-reaching, the humanitarian support shown for Ukrainian sports entities, athletes and its citizens has also been significant.
Examples of the solidarity with Ukrainians includes:
In Croatia 19,000 Ukrainians have found temporary homes in Croatia with the support of the Government. Sports federations focused on supporting Ukrainian athletes. Each national sports federation will take care of Ukrainian athletes in coordination with the NOC of Croatia.
In Denmark the NOC through its current programs has focused on the integration of refugees from Ukraine through the “get2sport” initiative.
In Italy the Italian Football Federation has eased the procedure to register minors coming from Ukraine. All the registration and insurance fees shall be borne by the Federation.
In Moldova 92 refugee centers across the country with over 90 000 Ukrainian refugees (mainly women & children) have been established in collaboration with the Government and the Moldovan Football Association (FAM). FAM also arranged for players and their families from Dinamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk during their transit through Moldova. FAM, together with its partners, will carry football activities of a mass character for refugee children aged between 5 and 16 years olds.
In Portugal the FPF, called “Each Club, a Family”, the aim of which is to transform the clubs into a supportive platform that facilitates integration into Portuguese society and provides hope to a population in emergency situations after fleeing the war in Ukraine. Portuguese coach Paulo Fonseca and his Ukraine-born wife Katerina, both of which had to flee from the war, are the ambassadors of this FPF initiative. The main idea behind this project is for Portuguese clubs to act as a “reception cell”, finding employment for an adult refugee and offering football practice to the household’s children or minors. Dozens have already found a new job and home thanks to this initiative and many clubs are still available to help Ukrainians in need.
In Turkey the Union of Clubs brought 126 Ukrainian kids, whose ages were between 7-16 to Turkey via a charter flight. From their arrival until now these kids have been living at the academies of four Turkish Super League Clubs: Trabzonspor, Çaykur Rizespor, Sivasspor and Kayserispor. Several Ukrainian sports teams (National Deaf Basketball Team, National Deaf Orienteering Team and one football club) who were in Turkey when the war began could not return to their country and are still being hosted in Turkey.
5.5. Impact on domestic athletes
Russian and Belarus athletes have been directly and indirect impacted.
The reaction to the invasion of Ukraine by Russian sports organizations, clubs and athletes differed drastically. Many of the decisions issued by the international sports federations were appealed by the Russian sports federations, clubs and individual athletes to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the internal judicial bodies of the international sports federations.
Russian athletes playing abroad have been impacted in different ways, some have had to return to Russia due to visa issues, some sports organisations such as NHL have stated its concern “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”. Some players have been barred from competition such as the case with Wimbledon which was opposed to the position of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Roland-Garros 2022, the French Open.
The situation with Belarus and its athletes are similar to that of Russia. Due to the IOC determined the multiple cases of discrimination in Belarusian sport and has come to the conclusion that the current NOC Bealrus leadership has not appropriately protected the Belarusian athletes from political discrimination. This resulted two packages of provisional measures were implemented by the IOC towards NOC Belarus, including the measure of non-recognition of Viktor Lukashenko to be an elected NOC President.
5.6. Sport in time of war crisis: looking back at history
Some Olympics Games, such as the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Berlin, saw countries threaten to pull out, before deciding to participate. World Wars I and II forced the cancellation of three Olympic Games in 1916, 1940 and 1944. Germany and Japan were banned in 1948 because of their roles in WWII. The same happened to South Africa during the era of apartheid and, more recently, Russia was banned in 2020, because of the infamous doping scandal although individual athletes were ultimately allowed to take part in international competitions under a neutral flag and designation.
Six times, however, countries officially boycotted the Olympic Games, with as few as three countries refusing to compete in 1964 and as many as 65 nations staying home in 1980.[13]
Besides the Olympic Games, most of the countries in this survey did not have any previous precedent for how to deal with such a war crisis.
However, Denmark, Malaysia referred to events that may have relevance:
On 30 May 1992 Denmark was added into the European Football Championship, following a sporting boycott of Serbia and Montenegro after the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 757, which called on all Member States to take various measures against the remaining vestiges of the former Yugoslavia, i.e. Serbia and Montenegro. Unlike the other embargo areas (trade, capital transfers, transport, etc.), the Danish Government did not introduce any penalties/sanctions for failure to abide by the request in the resolution text to back a sporting boycott of Serbia and Montenegro, but at the same time recommended that the resolution be complied with. DIF decided to follow the sporting boycott as recommended by the United Nations and the Danish Parliament, announcing in this regard that the Danish sports community should take social responsibility by complying with Parliament’s foreign policy line. In these circumstances, DIF instructed its special confederations and their members to follow the text of the resolution, but only as far as the instruction would apply to athletes representing “Yugoslavia”.
In in 2019, Malaysia was stripped of the right to host the World Para Swimming Championships because of the Government’s refusal to allow Israeli athletes to participate. Again, in November 2021, the World Men’s Team Squash Championship scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur from 7-12 December 2021 was cancelled after the Government of Malaysia refused to allow Israeli athletes to take part. The Olympic Council of Malaysia had tried to obtain special permission for these athletes but was unsuccessful. Following the cancellation of the Squash Championship, the IOC in December 2021 threatened to ban countries from hosting major events if they refused to allow athletes from certain countries to compete for political reasons. Since then, the Olympic Council of Malaysia has been proactive and has prepared a paper to the Cabinet of Malaysia on the implications of defying the IOC warning.
5.7. Impact on sponsorship agreements
A few countries did not have many if any Russian or Belarusian sponsors including Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Ecuador, Greece. Others took specific actions against one or more Russian sponsors.
In the UK, for instance, some organisations suspended their sponsorship arrangements with Russian companies. Manchester United moved quickly to terminate their contract with Aeroflot, and Everton eventually suspended their sponsorship contracts with Russian companies linked to a sanctioned individual.
In Italy AC Milan interrupted its partnership with a local sponsor, the Russian betting online company FonBet.
In Spain: Real Madrid cancelled the regional sponsorship contract with the Russian betting company “Fonbet” and decided to donate through its foundation €1m and 13,000 items of clothing and sporting equipment to alleviate the humanitarian needs of those displaced in Ukrainian. FC Barcelona, to date, maintains Russian betting company “1xBET” as one of their global sponsors.
In Switzerland: a first division ice hockey club EV Zug suspended it sponsorship agreement with “Nord Stream AG”, a Swiss-based company with close connections to Russian “Gazprom”.
Finally, the sports associations the European Handball Federation Champions League announced that clubs were released of their implementation obligations related to the sponsorship with “Nord Stream 2 AG”. The company was granted so-called provisional deferment of debt in accordance with arts. 293a ss. of the Swiss Federal Act on Debt Collection and Bankruptcy (Swiss Classified Compilation no. SR 281.1) by a court ruling of 10 May 2022 until 10 September 2022.
Conclusions
150 days have passed since the beginning of Russia - Ukraine war which threatens the existence of a nation and, unfortunately, its destructive effects will last for generations. While the war is having a substantial impact on the social, economic and political conditions of the countries involved – and not only them - the sporting world has taken a significantly hit as well. It has been rightly said that “Sporting activities invariably become collateral damage during any geopolitical crisis”.[14]The present survey has clearly showed that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is no exception.
This report highlights the far-reaching impact of the invasion of the Ukraine has had at international and domestically around the world. The action taken by the world’s governments, sports federations at national and international level, and at club/team level has differing legal and regulatory implications.
The speed at which these decisions had to be taken comes with obvious risks, that have already been and surely still will be subject to legal challenges as the basis for the decisions are scrutinised. For example, it is likely that we will see more cases brought against sports institutions, as the Ukrainian football club, Shakhtar Donetsk, did against the FIFA ruling allowing foreign players to unilaterally suspend their contracts in the Ukraine. They are seeking up to €50million in damages according to reports.[15]
All 30 examined International Sports Associations have decided to suspend the Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participation in their competitions until further notice. Only history will show the effectiveness of such measures. However, particularly significant is the fact that recently the Court of Arbitration for Sport has already decided that FIFA and UEFA were legitimate to suspend Russian clubs from their competitions in order to protect the integrity of the game following the IOC recommendations.
What precedent the response to the invasion sets for the sports institutions for future conflict situations in other parts of the world remains to be seen but we hope that this survey will provide a helpful reference document to better understand what is happening across sport at this moment in time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE.. 18
THE EUROPEAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE. 28
INTERNATIONAL PARALYMPIC COMMITTEE. 31
APPEALS BEFORE CAS AGAINST THE IOC DECISION.. 33
INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS. 37
ATHLETICS – WORLD ATHLETICS. 40
BASEBALL AND SOFTBALL – WBSC.. 44
TAEKWONDO – WORLD TAEKWONDO.. 107
TENNIS TABLE – ITTF – ETTF. 108
TRIATHLON – WORLD TRIATHLON.. 119
NATIONAL SPORTS ASSOCIATIONS. 123
REPUBLICA ORIENTAL DEL URUGUAY.. 201
International Sports Federations and measures against Russia and Belarus. 203
Global Summit 2024