Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo
SINCE the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, almost all international sporting bodies have disengaged from the Russian sports Federations, in the process disfranchising and paralyising completely innocent citizens and athletes in that country who have absolutely nothing to do with what is happening in the war.
The sporting bodies have always preached the gospel of being apolitical, leaving politics to politicians and in return, have also demanded that politicians leave sports issues to sportspersons.
Of all the sporting bodies that have suspended their relationship with Russia, the biggest one is Fifa which has more members than even the United Nations. Fifa has 211 members while the UN has 193.
How these sporting bodies came to a decision of punishing innocent Russian athletes is ambiguous for the simple reason that there is no conflict in Russia, Russians are not in conflict but instead its Russia as a country that can be said to be in conflict, not its citizens.
These sports bodies, especially Fifa’s hypocrisy has been badly exposed here. What is happening in Ukraine is certainly not a first that the world has witnessed, but one is forced to ask why have these organisations decided to take such an unprecedented move?
History tells us that in 1961, South Africa was slapped with similar sanctions for its apartheid policies and in 1992, Yugoslavia was also hit. However what is significant with these two politically motivated decisions by Fifa is that they both came after a special United Nations resolution.
Fast forward to 2022, Fifa suspended Russia on February 28 well before the March 3 United Nations General Assembly vote on the conflict. Is Fifa now bigger, politically that is, than the United Nations?
Theconversation.com’s Petr David Josek notes that Nazi Germany took part in he 1938 Fifa World Cup, as did France in the World Cups of the 1950s despite that country’s bloody wars against independence movements in Algeria and Indochina.
No sporting sanctions were placed on the Argentinian junta, which detained and executed its own population inside football stadiums that went on to host the 1978 World Cup finals, and Nigeria was allowed to compete in the 1970 Fifa World Cup qualifiers despite its government waging a war against Biafrans, which resulted in up to two million deaths by starvation.
So why now and why innocent Russian athletes?
Fifa has always said its statutes are sacred and must be followed to the letter yet here they are taking decisions totally devoid of its statute that empowers the Fifa Council to suspend a member found on the wrong side.
Article 16.1 of the Fifa Statutes read:
“The Congress may suspend a member association solely at the request of the Council. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Council may, without a vote of the Congress, temporarily suspend with immediate effect a member association that seriously violates its obligations. A suspension approved by the Council shall be in effect until the next Congress, unless the Council has revoked such suspension prior to such Congress’.
“Member associations have the following obligations, according to Article 14 of the same Fifa Statutes
a) to comply fully with the Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of Fifa bodies at any time as well as the decisions of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) passed on appeal on the basis of art. 57 par. 1 of the Fifa Statutes;
b) to take part in competitions organised by Fifa;
c) to pay their membership subscriptions;
d) to cause their own members to comply with the Statutes, regulations, directives and decisions of Fifa bodies;
e) to convene its supreme and legislative body at regular intervals, at least every two years;
f) to ratify statutes that are in accordance with the requirements of the Fifa Standard Statutes;
g) to create a referees committee that is directly subordinate to the member association;
h) to respect the Laws of the Game;
i) to manage their affairs independently and ensure that their own affairs are not influenced by any third parties in accordance with art. 19 of these Statutes;
j) to comply fully with all other duties arising from these Statutes and other regulations.
“Violation of the above-mentioned obligations by any member association may lead to sanctions provided for in these Statutes.
Violations of par. 1 i) may also lead to sanctions, even if the third-party influence was not the fault of the member association concerned. Each member association is responsible towards Fifa for any and all acts of the members of their bodies caused by the gross negligence or wilful misconduct of such members,” reads part two of Article 14.
Based on its own laws, which part of the Fifa statutes did the Russian Football Union (RFU) violate for them and its affiliates like Spartak Moscow to be suspended from all international football activities?
The Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) has been suspended from World Athletics since 2015 due to doping violations and therefore is not currently eligible to host World Athletics events or send teams to international championships.
The Authorised Neutral Athlete (ANA) process remains in place, but Russian athletes who have received ANA status for 2022 are as a result now excluded from World Athletics series events for the foreseeable future.
All Russian ANA or Belarusian athletes currently accredited for the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships Muscat 22 and the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 (March18-20) will have their accreditation withdrawn and entries denied, as will any support personnel and officials.
The ANA athletes were allowed to compete at the Beijing Olympics because the International Olympic Committee saw no reason, then, to punish innocent athletes but instead they hit RusAF as there was neither a Russian national anthem nor flag at the Games.
This is what these sports bodies ought to have done, allowing innocent athletes to go about their business as neutrals because this is their source of livelihood.
They had no say and neither were they even consulted by the Russian political leaders ahead of undertaking this special military operation in Ukraine.
Online Reporter