A year since the war between Russia and Ukraine: sports in the shadow of the battles Israel today

Two soccer teams that happen to be in the same hotel during a training camp is a common scenario, and the meeting between them usually gives rise to only positive experiences.

About 10 days ago in Turkey it ended differently.

Fate, or maybe a travel agent who hasn't read the news in the last year, housed the Russian Shinik and the Ukrainian Minai in the same hotel, and when the footballers on both sides realized this, a mass brawl ensued until blood flowed.

According to reports in the local media, the Russians had their hand on the bottom, as if it were a metaphor for their general state in the sports world since Putin's sisters-in-law invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Immediately after the world woke up from the initial shock following the war, various sports bodies and associations began to impose sanctions

on Russia and its neighbor Belarus, which helped it.

Within a few weeks, the wave gained momentum and swept away almost all disciplines, even those that could not be imagined without Russian participants, such as ice hockey, figure skating or biathlon.

Russian athletes were completely absent from most of the major sporting events that took place after the Russian invasion.

Russia was completely excluded from the competitive frameworks of FIFA and UEFA, and less popular branches also adhered to the policy of excluding the Russians.

Some took additional symbolic steps, such as the International Taekwondo Federation, which stripped Putin of the black belt that was given to him as a badge of honor back in 2013. Individual groups did not remain indifferent either, and those who benefited from the Russian money were quick to give it up as a gesture of solidarity with Ukraine.

Everton Football Club, for example, suspended sponsorship agreements with Russian corporations and had to look for other sponsors.

Putin and the revoked black belt, photo: AP

In this context, the tennis industry, known for its demonstrable individualism, maintained a different line.

The teams of Russia and Belarus lost the right to participate in the men's Davis Cup and the women's Billie Jean King Cup, but the tennis players from these countries continue to compete under a neutral flag in other tournaments.

The Wimbledon organizers were the only ones to impose a complete and total ban on all Russians and Belarusians, while the rest of the Grand Slams refused to follow suit.

Will Wimbledon's ban remain in place this summer?

Not at all certain, because a long list of past and present stars are putting public pressure on the organizers to soften the blanket ban.

Not just sports damage

Russian athletes from other disciplines see this and nurture hopes that the lifting of the sanctions will come even before their sports careers come to an end, but this is probably a false illusion.

Those who had a hard time found a simpler solution - to move to another country and adopt its citizenship.

There is no doubt that the sports boycott on Russia caused it both image and financial damage.

The loss of the right to host prestigious flagship competitions, including Formula 1 races, had a great significance.

The psychological aspect should not be underestimated either: the exclusion from world sports has contributed to the feeling of isolation of many Russian citizens, including millions of ordinary spectators and fans.

Of course, this did not stop Putin, and no one thought it would, but it hurt him and his subjects.

Kasper Schmeichel.

The football world was not afraid to express its opinion on fighting, photo: AP

For the Ukrainians, the sport and the embrace they received through it actually provided a window of hope.

Ukrainian soldiers testified that when they were exposed between the battles to the broadcasts of the top soccer leagues from around Europe and saw that the flag of their country was flying in all the stadiums, the spectacle gave them increased motivation to fight.

Some Ukrainian athletes even volunteered to serve at the front, and some fell in combat.

At the end of a year since the war, the issue of the future of sanctions continues to preoccupy the international organizations.

The various sports federations have so far proved to be patient, and if anyone expected that the longing for Russian athletes or the money that flowed to some of them would cause them to regret and break soon, it did not happen.

At the same time, investigations were spread about dark methods, which the Russians used in the last decades to buy, literally, more and more influence in sports.

The last of them revealed the business connection of Rene Pezel, the retired president of the International Hockey Federation, to Russia.

The big test of the sanctions will come before the Paris Olympics 2024. If the Russians are kept out of it, as it seems now, the Ukrainians will score themselves a big victory.

If not on the battlefield, at least in the mind.

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