International sport has become akin to punitive psychiatry: scandals instead of victories

The fabric of international sport is falling apart like a rotten rag. Until recently, the friendly world Olympic family is now divided into warring camps. And this crisis continues to deepen.

The ongoing proceedings with our young figure skater Kamila Valieva, the lack of an invitation to our Olympic team for the 2024 Games, the bullying of the Turkish Galatasaray players by English customs, the incomprehensible position of UEFA on the participation of our youth teams in international tournaments… All these pieces add up to a unified picture of the chaos to which world sport has been doomed by its leaders.

So that you don’t think that only our and Belarusian athletes are treated poorly by representatives of the Anglo-Saxon world, here is an example of recent days.

Turkish Galatasaray played away against Manchester United in the Champions League on October 3. And he won in a stubborn sports fight 3:2. But the joy of victory was overshadowed by the completely wild events that took place around this match due to the fault of the British authorities. Which can be judged from the official statement of the Turkish club:

“The disrespectful behavior began with difficulties experienced by players, technical staff and our team members in obtaining UK visas in Istanbul. It continued as our team entered the UK and, since last night, has become a message that is contrary to human rights values.

The takeoff of our team plane late in the evening after the match was unnecessarily delayed by pointlessly detailed luggage checks. The behavior of the official authorities during this process, the disrespect and ignorance shown, testify to the attitude towards our country.

We declare that no one can treat the players, technical staff and management of the Galatasaray sports club, which is the pride of Turkey, this way. We inform the entire public that we will fight to the end against those who behave inappropriately…”

It is difficult to imagine what the British authorities had to do to force the team management to make such a statement. But this did not come as a surprise. Sooner or later, the boundless rudeness and sense of impunity of English officials was bound to lead to such a scandal. Because Galatasaray is not the first to encounter difficulties in official relations with Great Britain. A little over a month ago, the midfielder of the Greek PAOK, Russian footballer Magomed Ozdoev, was not given a visa to enter the country, and he was unable to play for his club in the qualification for the Conference League.

The Greek club itself, and even the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tried to solve the problem, but the visa was never issued on time – Ozdoev ended up missing the qualifying match against the Scottish Hearts.

And this is true not only in England. In June, Russian and Belarusian wrestlers were unable to get to the European Youth Championships in Spain because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of this country delayed for too long in issuing visas. The documents were eventually received two days before the start of the competition. And our wrestling federation was forced to cancel the trip, since the deadlines for normal preparation had passed.

The government of the Czech Republic has banned Russian athletes from participating in competitions in the country. There were other glaring examples – last spring, our football players were refused treatment in Finnish clinics, where they sometimes went for rehabilitation. Without particularly bothering with explanations.

AT THE WILL OF THE ATTORNEYS

In Russian figure skating, a new season will begin very soon after test skates of the strongest athletes are held in mid-September. The first stage of the Russian Grand Prix series starts on October 14 in Ufa.

The participation of one of the most talented Russian figure skaters, still Olympic champion Kamila Valieva, is already in question. Both stages of the Grand Prix, where Valieva is scheduled to compete, take place in November, and the first is in Kazan from November 10 to 13. And the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) hearings in Camila’s case, which took place from September 26 to 28 in Lausanne, will now resume on November 9 and 10. And how this will affect the psychological state of the young athlete is difficult to predict. At the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022, after a scandal erupted with doping allegations, Valieva made unfortunate mistakes in individual competitions and was left without a medal.

As MK has repeatedly written, the situation is complicated by the fact that the Americans are putting a lot of pressure on WADA, which is demanding the most severe, four-year disqualification. Those who want to get gold medals in team competitions instead of the silver ones they currently have. They also tried to put pressure on the international arbitration court, demanding to allow them to attend the meeting, but CAS refused.

FOOTBALL HYPOCRISY

And the worst thing is that some Western sports officials, often former athletes themselves, are increasingly convincing themselves that they are doing the right thing. In late September, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) announced the return of Russian youth teams to their tournaments. When the British, Ukrainians, Romanians, Latvians, Poles, Norwegians, Danes and Swedes said that they would not play with our children under any circumstances, UEFA Vice-President, Swede Karl-Erik Nilsson had to hastily justify himself for such an “unreasonable” proposal . But in the end he made a reservation that all this is not yet certain, that there will still be discussions and consultations. It seems like the final decision will be made on October 10th. At the same time, the question remains – how to hold tournaments when our opponents simply refuse to enter the field, as was the case last spring, and at the same time they are not awarded technical defeats, as required by the rules, and the same CAS still denies us protection.

The funniest, and even more hypocritical, is the decision of the FIFA Council on October 3, which stated that our youth teams can play at the FIFA World Cup for Youth and Girls, but for this they need to go through the UEFA qualifying competitions. Which are still a big question.

NEW PATHS

All these facts speak only of one thing – power in world sports today is in the hands of real sports gangsters, for whom the main thing is not victories and medals, but the size of the numbers in sponsorship contracts. And we need to gradually get rid of this madness.

For example, the way it was invented in our biathlon.

On October 3, famous TV presenter Dmitry Guberniev announced the launch of a new project “International League of Club Biathlon” (MLKB). For which both strength and means were quickly found. The founders of the league were the Belarusian Biathlon Club under the leadership of member of the Presidium of the Belarusian Biathlon Federation Evgeniy Chmil and the Regional Biathlon Club with the President of the Moscow Region Biathlon Federation Alexei Nuzhdov. The debut races of the MLKB will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk on November 18–19.

In addition to Russian and Belarusian biathletes, two Chinese teams will compete at the MLKB Cup.

“We can only rejoice at the emergence of a new tournament. It’s great that it’s international, it’s great that the prize fund is so serious, it’s great that our athletes are not left isolated or without good incentives. The motivation created is wonderful. It is in the interests of our entire biathlon to find an opportunity to hold these starts,” two-time Olympic medalist and three-time world champion Ivan Tcherezov, who heads the Biathlon Federation of the Udmurt Republic, commented on the idea of ​​​​creating the MLKB.

His speech contains words that are very important for all Russian athletes: we do not remain isolated. And we don’t have to play by the rules of the old world of sports. According to them, we will never become champions.