Russian President Vladimir Putin was suspended from his status as honorary president and ambassador of the International Judo Federation
The UEFA announced on Monday that it had broken “with immediate effect” its collaboration with the Russian giant Gazpromone of its main sponsors since 2012.
The contract was estimated at 40 million euros a year (about 45 million dollars), according to specialized media, and covered the Champions League, the international competitions organized by UEFA, as well as Euro-2024 in Germany.
The German club Schalke 04 had already broken with Gazprom. Manchester United, meanwhile, decided to separate from Aeroflot.
Sochi is symbolic of the use of sport to gain political influence. Host city of the Winter Games in 2014, it hosts the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix. But this will not be the case this season: the promoter of the competition, Formula One, has decided to cancel it.
The American team Haas, for its part, decided not to wear the Russian colors of its sponsor Uralkali on its single-seaters. The future in F1 of Nikita Mazepin, the son of a Uralkali manager and who was to drive one of the two Haas cars, is also up in the air.
Chelsea owner, Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, announced that he will hand over “the management and administration” of the Premier League club to the trustees of the entity’s charitable foundation. Another sensitive case is AS Monaco, owned by Russian millionaire Dimitri Rybolovlev.
The four major boxing bodies – IBF, WBC, WBA, WBO – announced on Saturday that they will not authorize championships in Russia until further notice. The International Swimming Federation (FINA) canceled the Junior World Championships in Kazan in August and announced that no competition will be held in Russia.
In football, UEFA confirmed that after the exclusion of Spartak Moscow, Leipzig qualifies directly for the Europa League quarterfinals.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a prominent judo practitioner, was suspended on Sunday from his status as honorary president and ambassador of the International Judo Federation.
The Swedish government called on Saturday for a comprehensive exclusion of Russia from all country sports competitions in the European Union. The Norwegian and Swedish ski federations reported that Russian athletes were not welcome on their territory for next month’s events.
And the British authorities indicated that the Russian and Belarusian “national teams” were persona non grata.
Scheduled from August 26 to September 11, the volleyball World Cups are threatened, although the international federation has not yet reacted. Poles and French, respective world and Olympic champions, announced their withdrawal from the tournament if it remained in Russia.
This Monday, the International Ice Hockey Federation decided to suspend all Russian and Belarusian teams as well as all clubs from these two countries from all competition in all age categories “until further notice”.
