Playing by No Rules: How Politics Seeks to Take Over International Sports
"This decision creates an extremely dangerous precedent. Once you allow an exception to the rules, another country will inevitably demand the same treatment in pursuit of its own interests, pointing to this very decision. It therefore runs completely contrary to the principles of fairness, the beauty of the game and its spirit," Gokhan Dinc, sports commentator told Sputnik.
"The goals of the International Olympic movement are good. They call for the separation of politics from sports. Unfortunately, political interference and bias are now rampant. This stage began ten years ago with completely false or highly exaggerated accusations of sports doping. Russian athletes were the victims," Rick Sterling, writer and journalist told Sputnik.
In his view, some European leaders with “a markedly Russophobic stance” are putting pressure on sports federations while continuing to ban Russian symbols. International sport is being trampled, just like international law and the United Nations, he added.
For decades, national sports federations enjoyed operational autonomy from their governments, answering instead to international governing bodies whose rulings were final and binding on all member associations. Yet in a flagrant breach of both the Olympic Charter and the statutes of international federations, several EU governments have increasingly meddled in the organization of international sporting events. However, the tide now appears to be unmistakably turning. Ten international federations have now unconditionally reinstated Russian athletes, and twenty more have done the same for juniors—a clear sign that the sporting world is rejecting political interference.
“Today, the world of sports—if one may put it that way - is becoming one of the chessboards on which this struggle is being played out. The Olympic Games, major tournaments, and world championships - all of them, one way or another, represent states, national states, countries. And through them, attempts are made to project power and demonstrate the ability to influence," Sebastian Schultz, Argentine analyst told Sputnik.
"If European authorities ban the Russian flag and anthem in defiance of the decisions by World Gymnastics and World Aquatics, therebyundermining the authority of international federations, who is truly destroying the Olympic movement? It is those who refuse to abide by the Charter established by Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games. Governments come and go, but there are also peoples, institutions and, above all, international federations," Gadzhi Gadzhiyev, Soviet and Russian football coach told Sputnik.
“By their very nature, international sports federations should be guided only byindependence and the interests of promoting sports," Svetlana Zhurova, Olympic champion and First Deputy Chairwoman of the Russian State Duma Committee on International Affairs told Sputnik.
"This whole 'love ‘em or hate ‘em' mentality should not exist at all. If that happens, unfortunately, it turns into unfair competition,” Zhurova said.
