Facing an ace

The international sports law has turned into a cheap circus

Fiat iustitia, ruat mundus! In ancient times, they used to say, ‘Let justice be done, though the world perish’ and they tried to adhere to this principle. At least, they did not trample cynically on it, demonstrating an utterly disrespectful attitude towards the opponent and everyone else. Nowadays, the rules have changed and a different postulate is in use — the one is right who has more rights. In other words, whoever has the gold makes the rules. It is a secret to no one that Russian and Belarusian athletes have to face a continuous ban from all international competitions, contrary to all norms of law and moral integrity, forced to bend to selfish political interests of Western bigwigs. However, the 
blatant arrogance and unscrupulousness of the latter seem to go beyond the bounds of reason at times.            

              

Turn the judge into soap!

All credit goes to the ATP and WTA — the governing bodies of the elite level of tennis competitions for men and women, respectively — for the fact that our tennis players continue to participate in the largest tennis tournaments. There have been attempts to back them into a corner by exerting serious pressure on both associations, but it did not work out. Aryna Sabalenka, Daniil Medvedev, and other Belarusian and Russian representatives of the big tennis keep collecting victories, and delight their fans with new trophies. However, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) persists in doing everything in its power to ensure that the Belarusian Tennis Federation (BTF) has the status of an outcast. Back in the second half of 2020, Belarus was banned from organising and holding international tournaments on its territory. After that, referring to the IOC’s recommendations, the ITF deprived Belarus of the right to compete in team competitions.
In addition, the ITF membership of the Belarusian national tennis federation was suspended. Such decisions, accompanied by the demonstration of outright hostility and contempt, do not stand up to scrutiny and have no grounds whatsoever. The Belarusian Tennis Federation has been trying to prove this from a legal perspective by appealing to the courts and filing appeals for several years now.
The imitation of the proceedings in this regard at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, which until now had a reputation as a more or less honest office, lasted for almost two years. Thus, on February 9th, 2024, after multiple postponements (there were seven of them!), the CAS, shamelessly closing its eyes to a host of obvious violations, lies and fraud, ruled... in favour of the ITF!
“Unfortunately, I clearly see that the Olympic movement is degrading,” summed up BTF Chairman Sergei Rutenko. “Moreover, neither the IOC, the ITF, nor the CAS oppose this situation in any way. In fact, they contribute to the split in the Olympic movement. Regrettably, athletes are just a source of profit and income for them; they do not try to protect them in any way.”
Sergei Rutenko called the CAS’ decision and all the surrounding circumstances ‘a legal disgrace’ — and this is the mildest of all possible formulations. They are just hammering our country brazenly into the ground with a sledgehammer, while the so-called legal guarantors prefer to watch this mayhem of lawlessness silently from the sidelines and not interfere.
Having made public all the facts of the lawlessness taking place, the BTF has clearly demonstrated that the Belarusian side has to confront monsters and complete scoundrels, who have recently stopped even trying to hide behind any norms or laws, but hit where it hurts most.

Nota bene

The following is very important for the understanding of the whole essence of the ongoing processes and the true face of European liberal officials. If you put together all the ITF’s attempts and tricks to harm Belarus, you could publish a solid collection of excellent amusing stories. Yet, all this would be funny if it were not so sad. Even paper may well blush with shame at the below facts, unlike officials of the international federation, who apparently found conscience too expensive to maintain. Here are just a few disgraceful facts of many.

• The ITF explained the ban on holding competitions on the territory of Belarus by alleged insecurity for foreign participants, based on a report by some ‘independent’ consultants and articles on the Internet.
• The Davis Cup World Group I Playoff match postponed from Belarus to Mexico was cancelled only after the last official representative of our team had arrived in Mexico City; although just the day before, ITF representatives assured that the match would take place.
• At the ITF extraordinary general conference, where the suspension of the BTF and the Russian Federation membership was ratified, Sergei Rutenko’s microphone was simply turned off during his speech, although he had spoken even less than a quarter of the time allotted according to the regulations. This was done intentionally, to prevent the BTF Chairman from providing ironclad arguments of the Belarusian side.
• Sergei Rutenko’s refusal to comment on the conflict in Ukraine, referring to the fact that the conference was being held in a sports organisation which is not the proper place to discuss political issues, was interpreted by the officials for their own benefit. The counter-argument that, based on their logic it could be argued that the ITF and CAS support and contribute to wars, for example, between Palestine and Israel or the US military intervention in Syria, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia and other countries, since they have never publicly condemned these conflicts, was met in the same way — with the threat of cutting off the microphone.
  
This is democracy and freedom of speech in action. And what else would you expect?

Lying through his teeth

During the appeal proceeding, the Belarusian side repeatedly caught ITF President David Haggerty in a lie. This highly dishonourable gentleman did not even try to stick to the truth. Instead, he was talking such nonsense and absurdity that one might get scared. Thus, he made up a story that FIFA and UEFA allegedly suspended Belarusian football players from their matches. Haggerty claimed that the majority of representatives of the world community demanded in writing that Belarus be removed from the ITF membership. Yet, he could not provide any confirmation of his words. He stated that President of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation Bulat Utemuratov advocated the removal of our federation from the ITF membership, although it was exactly the opposite — Utemuratov is a great friend of our federation and he openly stated this.
Who Mr. Haggerty is after those farfetched statements and what epithets he deserves — decide for yourselves. We will only say that he is an American, a graduate of the elite George Washington University School of Business and a former chief of the United States Tennis Association. You would agree that these facts explain a lot. And, for sure, he is also a big scoundrel on top of that. Like all those who continue to suffocate our country with unjustified sanctions.

By Sergei Kanashits