Wimbledon bans Russian and Belarusian players

[Esceptico]

Massive over reaction in my view. The individuals are not playing for their countries and are not necessarily supportive of what is happening in the Ukraine. Completely unfair to the likes of Medvedev and Rublev. Will cost them millions and possibly a lot of ranking points.

I wonder whether the ATP will sue?

[TriumphStag3.0V8]

I'm astonished that anyone could think this is anything other than the correct decision. Tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of Ukranians raped, murdered, terrorised and bombed by Russia, but boo hoo, a few Russians aren't allowed to play tennis in a competition.

Boo-fking-hooo.

[greygoose]

I couldn't care less if some Russian players didn't get any cash.

[grumbledoak]

It's only fair - we banned the Americans from competition when they invaded Iraq.

[johnboy1975]

Esceptico said:

Massive over reaction in my view. The individuals are not playing for their countries and are not necessarily supportive of what is happening in the Ukraine. Completely unfair to the likes of Medvedev and Rublev. Will cost them millions and possibly a lot of ranking points.

I wonder whether the ATP will sue?

We're you so concerned about Djokovic losing ranking points? (I do appreciate the difference, in that it was his choice. But it was a choice he felt strongly about, and made sod all difference to anyone else. Especially with the alledged/confirmed positive PCR.)

FWIW I have sympathies for the players concerned, but (as with Djokovic) it was/is politically untenable for them to lift the trophy. And the easiest way to avoid that risk is......

[Wills2]

The right decision, not their fault but as long as Putin and his army are doing unspeakable things in Ukraine they can't play.

[fido]

Completely wrong / immoral / discrimination. They are here as individual athletes not to represent a country. Another reason to avoid the traffic around Wimbledon - I won't bother watching this year!

[ChocolateFrog]

TriumphStag3.0V8 said:

I'm astonished that anyone could think this is anything other than the correct decision. Tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of Ukranians raped, murdered, terrorised and bombed by Russia, but boo hoo, a few Russians aren't allowed to play tennis in a competition.

Boo-fking-hooo.

The OP loves to be contrary.

Good riddance, every possible avenue of pressure should be applied short of our self imposed intervention.

If a couple of tennis players miss out then as you say boo-hoo, cry me a river.

[CallThatMusic]

I think this is right and fair given what is happening in Ukraine.
Doesn’t bear comparison with Djokovic and Oz.

[fizz47]

While it is the right decision in regards to Russia it yet again exposes the double standard and making up rules…

So many other countries should be banned from competing in sports too if you were to apply the same standards..

Let’s ban the Chinese for their treatment of Uyghurs.

Let’s ban the Saudis for their campaign of bombing of Yemen

Let’s ban the Israelis for illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and their continued apartheid regime

Let’s ban all the countries that took part in the Iraq war

To be fair if we were to apply an equal standard to all counties i don t think many countries would compete anymore,

Unfortunately the powerful make up their own rules and justification even though pretty much everyone has blood on their hands

[glazbagun]

Pretty sure Medvedev has been against the invasion since the start, too. If we're going to start kicking people out of work because of where they were born it's getting a bit stupid.

[paulw123]

Good, every little helps

[poo at Paul's]

glazbagun said:

Pretty sure Medvedev has been against the invasion since the start, too. If we're going to start kicking people out of work because of where they were born it's getting a bit stupid.

Not really. It just helps send a message back home as to what the rest of the world thinks about it all.
The more thst get disenfranchised by it all, the merrier, helpfully the message will start to get though to Joe Publiski

[Cheib]

Esceptico said:

Massive over reaction in my view. The individuals are not playing for their countries and are not necessarily supportive of what is happening in the Ukraine. Completely unfair to the likes of Medvedev and Rublev. Will cost them millions and possibly a lot of ranking points.

I wonder whether the ATP will sue?

ATP will sue ?! WTF !!!

The world is in a situation where there is a megalomaniac pursuing a war where he is armed forces are carrying out atrocities of the kind we haven’t seen in Europe for decades.

It’s not about the individual players or this individual action it is about sending a message that the country they are from is a pariah and will not be welcomed back into society until Putin is gone and massive reparations are paid. The end. Every time this kind of action it is taken it reinforces that message.

Personally I’ve found it appalling that we’ve been blindly ignoring systemic theft of billions of dollars (one number I read yesterday estimated it at $1Trillion) from the Russian state by Putin and the Oligarch’s for the last 25 years and welcoming that money into the worldwide economy but that is another a story.

[anonymous-user]

Personally I would have been happy to see Russian tennis players excluded as part of a wider move to exclude all Russian sportsmen and women from all international events due to Russia’s systemic state doping system.

In short and impolite terms: fk them all. Every single one of them, and I really don’t care if some innocent Russian athletes get caught in the cross fire.

So this is something I see as right result via a different route. I can’t say I’ll be shedding any tears.

[heebeegeetee]

ChocolateFrog said:

TriumphStag3.0V8 said:

I'm astonished that anyone could think this is anything other than the correct decision. Tens, nay, hundreds of thousands of Ukranians raped, murdered, terrorised and bombed by Russia, but boo hoo, a few Russians aren't allowed to play tennis in a competition.

Boo-fking-hooo.

The OP loves to be contrary.

Good riddance, every possible avenue of pressure should be applied short of our self imposed intervention.

If a couple of tennis players miss out then as you say boo-hoo, cry me a river.

Agreed. Re the now-famous saying, Russians, go and f**k yourselves.
I mean, the lives of millions of Russians are going to be somewhat blighted for generations to come, why on earth worry about some tennis players? Shouldn't their lives be blighted too? At least they're alive.

[ClaphamGT3]

The reason why it is right to ban these Russians and Belrussians is not because of some wrong-headed sense of collective guilt but because it is another signal to the Russian people that the actions of their Govt are wrong and have consequences.

[SlimJim16v]

fizz47 said:

So many other countries should be banned from competing in sports too if you were to apply the same standards..

Let’s ban the Chinese for their treatment of Uyghurs.

Let’s ban the Saudis for their campaign of bombing of Yemen

Let’s ban the Israelis for illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and their continued apartheid regime

It doesn't mean we shouldn't ban Russia, but yes, we should also ban the above.

[cwis]

ClaphamGT3 said:

The reason why it is right to ban these Russians and Belrussians is not because of some wrong-headed sense of collective guilt but because it is another signal to the Russian people that the actions of their Govt are wrong and have consequences.

What about banning the Germans then? Are not the actions of their government wrong? Should there not be consequences?

I'm not disagreeing with your position - just interested where you would draw the line...

[ClaphamGT3]

cwis said:

What about banning the Germans then? Are not the actions of their government wrong? Should there not be consequences?

I'm not disagreeing with your position - just interested where you would draw the line...

Wrong was a carelessly chosen word - "in deliberate breach of international law" would be more accurate