When those who govern international sports want something strongly enough, they always find a reasonably viable reason for doing it. Also when it comes to Russia. The IOC, for its part, points out that no one should be discriminated against because of nationality – and pulls out of the Olympic hat a UN expert few had previously heard of, to talk about violations of fundamental rights. That is, to the Russian athletes, not the Ukrainian ones, if anyone were to believe such a thing. Some believe this is at best a misinterpretation. But the IOC and their Greek lawyer stand their ground. UN EXPERT: Alexandra Xanthaki is a law professor in the field of human rights and special rapporteur for cultural rights at the UN. The European football federation, Uefa, has found another entrance. They have suddenly found out that they have to look after their children. Or at least the Russian ones. And this will certainly also apply in the future to other countries that suddenly find out that they have to go to war against another member nation. Time for technical solutions No one should be discriminated against just because they are young. Therefore, Uefa will once again allow Russian teams to take part in the qualification for next year’s U17 EC. These are the European championships for girls and boys up to 17 years of age. The qualifying matches already started this Wednesday. So in order to bring in a so-called “neutral” Russia, i.e. without a national anthem and its usual uniforms, one must resort to what is called a “technical solution” and change the group set-up and game plan that have already been determined. Which only reinforces one thing: Everything about this decision is wrong. For everyone but Russia. But it is not practicality that is the problem here – it is necessarily principled. The agreement to keep Russia out of all European football tournaments as long as the war of aggression in Ukraine continues is suddenly cracking. EXCLUDED: Russia’s national football team does not participate in European tournaments. Here from a training match against Qatar in September. Photo: KARIM JAAFAR / AFP Women and children Uefa’s so-called executive committee, where among others the Russian Aleksander Djukov sits, has suddenly found out that it must protect children. Commendable enough. But not something that was taken into account in the U17 EC in 2022 or 2023, when there was also war in Ukraine. And just for the record – 17-year-olds are not considered “children” in a sports context. On its own websites, the association then also calls it the “Women’s Under-17 Championship”. Women, not girls. When France won the men’s – or boys’ – U17 EC this summer, players from clubs such as PSG and Monaco were on the team. Among others, Barcelona’s new star Lamine Yamal, who has already made his debut in the Spanish A national team, played for Spain. Norway also got off the field. This is not the Norway Cup, even if Uefa suddenly wants us to think so. Something has suddenly changed – without it being so easy to understand what. Other than the reasons one might suspect. That this is mostly about power, money and politics. But this also gives immediate reactions. Luckily. The Ukrainian Football Federation immediately reacted and said it would not participate in a tournament where Russian players are involved. They quickly received support from England as well as Poland, Latvia, Denmark and Sweden. The very next day, Lise Klaveness and her board of the Norwegian Football Association took a similar position and refused their national teams to compete as long as Russian teams are involved. GOING AGAINST UEFA: NFF and Klaveness will not participate as long as Russian teams are involved. Photo: Fredrik Varfjell / NTB Something else will also be broken with everything Norwegian sport stands for and has stood for through this conflict. Norway’s young women play their first qualifying match against Ireland on 12 October, while the young Norwegian men start their way towards a possible play-off in Cyprus in mid-November. The whitewashing of Belarus Some will surely ask themselves where Belarus is in this discussion. The answer is strangely little discussed. They are in the European football heat – and have been all along. news itself discussed this with Uefa’s general secretary, Theodore Theodoridis, at a conference in Switzerland a few months ago. THE MANAGEMENT: Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin and Theodoridis. Photo: MASSIMO PINCA / Reuters A clearly uncomfortable Greek explained that Uefa was afraid of legal consequences if they suspended a Belarus it believed could not be defined as a belligerent nation. There are Ukrainians who disagree with this rationale, so to speak. But Uefa has so far managed to live with it. Partly by a little luck. Belarus and Ukraine have not yet finished in the same qualifying pools for the championship, with Belarus playing their home games on neutral grounds. And partly by the fact that Belarusian teams very rarely make it far in European club tournaments or receive particularly much attention otherwise for their efforts. TEAM PICTURE: Belarus is in the football heat. Photo: RONEN ZVULUN / Reuters In principle, one is on uncertain ice at best. Most of all, it is cowardly and unsupportive. The same applies to this week’s Uefa decision. Now it remains to be seen whether it is possible to implement it. Consideration of own tournaments and income is always the most important principle in Uefa, like most other major sports organisations. And then it won’t take many more boycotting nations before consideration for these Russian soccer kids has to give way. The IOC’s Trojan horses In the shadows of all these discussions lurks the most powerful of all organisations, namely the International Olympic Committee, the IOC. Because regardless of which sport tries to find solutions to these questions, the overall discussion revolves around the Olympics in Paris next summer. No one doubts what their powerful president Thomas Bach wants, namely to get Russian and Belarusian athletes to start in the Olympics in Paris in July. The tactic to achieve that, at the moment, is to push the special federations ahead of them. Many have already taken the plunge and allowed Russian participants to take part in their championships. And through it signaled that you will vote for the same when the Olympics are approaching. This week, sports can give Russia several decisive victories. In Bahrain, there is a general assembly for the IPC, i.e. the International Paralympic Committee. Here, great tension is linked to the vote surrounding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in Paris. IPC president Andrew Parsons has been much more principled than his IOC counterpart. PRESIDENT: Here is Parsons on the podium during the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Photo: WANG ZHAO / AFP But whether it is enough to secure a majority for a ban is far from certain. A majority to allow pseudo-neutral Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Paralympics would be an important step on the way for those who want the same in the Olympics. What consequences such decisions will have and how this will affect the implementation of the Games, no one yet knows. But it is unlikely to be particularly child-friendly.
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