Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston confirmed on Tuesday that he was in talks with the All England Club over creating a set of rules that would bar Russian athletes from Wimbledon this summer if they didn’t give assurances that they condemned Putin and the war, which could see the likes of world No 1 Daniil Medvedev banned from the tournament. Addressing MPs, he said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport was looking into the issue pertaining to individual sports and admitted it was likely that restrictions would need to go further than simply making Russian athletes neutral when competing in England.
Huddleston said he wanted outright “assurances” that players like Medvedev were happy to denounce Putin’s actions and the promotion of the Russian flag, adding: “We are looking at this issue of what we do with individuals and we are thinking about the implications of it, because I don’t think people would accept individuals very clearly flying the Russian flag, in particular, if there is any support for Putin and his regime.”
But the head of the women’s tour has announced he will not support a ban on Russian or Belarusian players from the competition, with athletes from the two countries currently playing as neutrals with no mention of their country or flag. Speaking to BBC Sport, Steve Simon said: “You never know what the future may bring but I can tell you that we have never banned athletes from participating on our tour as the result of political positions their leadership may take.”
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“So it would take something very, very significant for that to change, but again we don’t know where this is going.” Although he did not want to see Russian and Belarusian players banned from the competition even as neutrals, Simon conceded that the tours would have no choice if national governments stepped in and made the rules, with Huddleston also revealing the government had been in talks with sporting ministers in other nations to reach a “broad global consensus” on how to treat individual Russian athletes.
“It will force us to change our position because obviously, we have to follow the rules of government,” the WTA boss continued. “I feel very, very strongly that again these individual athletes should not be the ones that are being penalised by the decisions of an authoritarian leadership that is obviously doing terrible, reprehensible things. But if that happens, which is again part of the overall strategy of making Russia, and Russian citizens, pay the consequence for the decision their government has made, then it won’t be something that we support.”
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Simon was happy to continue with the sanctions the ATP, WTA, ITF and four Grand Slams announced recently, which also saw the October tournament in Moscow cancelled and the Russian and Belarusian teams banned from competing in the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup this year, with Russia the defending champion of both.
“We are hopeful that they will refrain from that because I think there are an awful lot of other issues that go with it,” he said. “I don’t think you can just pick on the athletes. What are you going to do with the [Russian] refugees that come in? Are you going to treat the refugees differently than the athletes? I’m hoping that we continue with the sanctions, we continue doing everything we can to get peace, but again these people are the innocent victims of that, and being isolated as a result of these decisions I don’t think it’s fair.”
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