- 46th Association of Summer Olympic International Federations General Assembly is underway.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has told ASOIF that they must make their own responses to the war in Ukraine or risk “becoming a political tool”.
Mr Bach attacked the action of the All-England Lawn Tennis Club in banning Russian and Belarus players from their Wimbledon event claiming it . . . as the [British] Government saying no way, and that “if we allow this, if we give into this, then we are lost”.
While he claimed that the IOC exclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus had been taken as a protective measure. “In a number of countries you had and have such high feelings against Russian and Belarusian people that you could not guarantee their safety at international competitions anymore.”
He warned that after the war . . . “This will be a world where the political world will look to make the difference and to be divisive rather than naturally agree on some common causes.”
It appeared that he had not noticed that Mr Putin’s government has been rather ‘divisive’ in unilaterally invading Ukraine and continuing to bomb and shell cities and unarmed civilians.
Apparently killing and injuring thousands of civilians and driving millions of refugees to flee a country should not be allowed to stand in the way of uninterrupted sport.
With the next Olympics only two years away ASOIF, and Mr Bach as head of the IOC, is obviously beginning to feel nervous that their great money-spinner – taking place in Europe – will come under pressure to reflect a more realistic attitude to the war in Ukraine.
Any escalation of the Russian/Ukraine conflict to other European countries, with several bordering countries already making moves to bolster their defences, could throw plans for the 2024 Games into disarray.
Time is short and the economic framework has already been impacted by the global health crisis as well as the war in Ukraine and will soon begin to effect the upcoming qualification process for Paris 2024.
While Mr Bach worries about the effect of the war on a few millionaire sport stars, in the real world it is his ‘divisive governments’ who have to face the continued aggression of Putin’s Russia and its effect, not just on the people of Ukraine, but of its effect world-wide on energy and food supplies.
The General Assembly of ASOIF, consisting of 28 Full Member International Federations and four Associate Members, convenes annually. Elections are held at the General Assembly and decisions are taken on matters of common interest in the Summer Olympic Games, the Summer Youth Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement, as well as on affairs relating to ASOIF’s finance and administration.
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