LONDON: Britain has referred to as on Olympic sponsors together with Coca-Cola and Samsung to help a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes competing at subsequent yr’s summer season video games in Paris.
London hopes that strain from sponsors will sway the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC), with a yr and a half to go till the Paris 2024 video games.
“We all know sport and politics in Russia and Belarus are closely intertwined, and we’re decided that the regimes in Russia and Belarus should not be allowed to make use of sport for his or her propaganda functions,” the federal government stated in a letter Friday to the heads of the IOC’s 13 official international companions, together with Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Samsung and Deloitte.
“As an Olympic Accomplice, I might welcome your views on this matter and ask you to affix us in urgent the IOC to handle the considerations raised in our assertion,” it added.
The IOC in January outlined a roadmap to reinstate Russians and Belarussians, excluded from world sport because the invasion of Ukraine greater than a yr in the past, beneath a impartial flag offered they didn’t actively help the battle.
Governments of greater than 30 nations have requested the IOC for “clarification” over how Russian and Belarusian athletes would have the ability to compete.
“We’ve robust considerations on how possible it’s for Russian and Belarusian Olympic athletes to compete as ‘neutrals’… when they’re instantly funded and supported by their states,” stated the letter.
The joint letter adopted a summit earlier in London attended by France, Britain, the US and Canada, amongst others.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky additionally spoke on the convention.
Ukraine is against the opportunity of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in Paris, even beneath a impartial banner, and has even threatened to boycott the competitors.
The Worldwide Fencing Federation on Friday determined to permit Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in Olympic qualifying occasions, sparking outrage in Kyiv.