Med anledning av Rysslands invasion av Ukraina, stödd av Belarus, lämnar tennisförbunden i Danmark, Finland, Island, Norge och Sverige följande gemensamma uttalande riktat till Internationella tennisförbundet (ITF) och Tennis Europe (TE).
Vid frågor, vänligen kontakta: Svenska Tennisförbundets ordförande, Åsa Hedin, asa.hedin@tennis.se
To:
Tennis Europe by president Ivo Kaderka and ITF by president David Haggerty,
We know that you both are working together to decide on the next step to act on the situation in Ukraine. As input to that, the Nordic Tennis Federations, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden want to make our view clear; we call for full exclusion of Russian and Belarussian sports.
We all follow the developments on the tragic and dangerous situation in Ukraine. The Russian attack on Ukraine, supported by Belarus, is a blatant breach on international law and is unacceptable. At the moment, a wide ranging set of coordinated international sanctions are being developed within a broad range of sectors, hereunder at EU and NATO level. The Russian attack on the Ukrainian people and breach of international law, demands international condemnation and sanctions. On this background, it is our very clear opinion that:
- Russian and Belarussian athletes shall not participate in international sport events outside of Russia or Belarus.
- All planned TE and ITF events to take place in Russia and Belarus to be cancelled indefinitely, with immediate effect.
- Russian and Belarussian sport leaders and officials shall be suspended from their international positions.
Note that based on the above we urge you to ensure that representatives of Russia and Belarus are not invited and welcomed to the upcoming March TE AGM in Portugal.
To ensure the global tennis community stand united and strong in these times, we also request ITF to put pressure on ATP and WTA to also adopt the above sanctions.
Regards,
Nordic Tennis Federations
