Hockey and soccer organizations want nothing to do with Putin’s teams.
If you start a war for no apparent good reason, then you should expect people to cast you aside and not want anything to do with you. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is watching how sports organizations around the world are saying Nyet! We don’t want your national teams in our business. The Court of Arbitration for Sport has upheld the decisions of the governing body of soccer, FIFA, and the European soccer association UEFA to keep Russian national teams and clubs from participating in their competitions. Russia will not field a World Cup team in this year’s competition.
In February, Russian teams were banned from competing in FIFA and UEFA competitions “until further notice” after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. FIFA put an end to Russia’s attempt to qualify for FIFA’s men’s World Cup tournament. Russia and Belarus are not welcomed in International Ice Hockey Federation circles either. The IIHF suspended the Russian and Belarusian teams on February 28th in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The disciplinary board of the International Ice Hockey Federation agreed with the IIHF initial decision to not assign any Russians to serve as on-ice officials during IIHF competitions. “The independent board supported our view that it would have been an unacceptable safety risk to either host the (world junior championship) and (world championship) in Russia or to have the Russian and Belarusian teams currently participating in IIHF competitions,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif in a statement. Russia and Belarus could take the case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Neither Russia nor Belarus played at the men’s world championship in Finland. Russia was stripped of hosting the 2023 world championship tournament in St. Petersburg. Russia is having no vacancy signs posted all over the world but start a war and that happens.
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