HenryW

I hope they've called Zelenskyy to tell him. That should cheer him right up. He'll know the war is all but over with this move!

Just wondering....Have Russians actually been banned from any other sports leagues? As far as I have seen, they continue to play in the likes of Football and Ice Hockey teams, even in Poland.

If the visa process is underway, it may be that the UK authorities currently have his passport, so he couldn't travel. Also interested in the second part...Surely he should have required a visa for those meetings?

The more I think about it, the more I think that in the GP series Emil and Artem should not be involved if the current fighting in Ukraine continues. It's hard on them, but anything else just seems to be unacceptable whilst the fighting continues. I know that speedway is close to being completely ignored by Russian federations, and their exclusion probably won't even create a ripple in Russia, but a stand really has to be made... As a fan of GP speedway, I can honestly say that I hate the thought of having to watch Jack Holder and Dan Bewley rather than Artem Laguta and Emil Sayfutdinov in a GP, but if that has to be, it's the fault of Putin....I would love to hear all Russian speedway riders shout out about their hate for what Putin is doing, regardless of how irrelevant their voice is compared to some other much bigger sports stars, but it doesn't seem to be coming.

Must be a bit of tension at home if this quote is correct as it seems his wife has been posting support for the Russians online.

Has that always been the case that it is only the "major" leagues that count or is that something that changed since the initial introduction of the rule (not necessarily now, but maybe before last season or sometime)?

The emilracing89 instagram account has a verification tick, and he posts his holiday pics with the family on there, so not something a fan would have access to. The twitter account where the new post with the Ukraine map comes from doesn't have a verification tick, so not certain that's him, but his clubs usually use that when discussing him and you'd hope they would check with him that they were using the right account (but certianly no guarantee of that).

So, how are you defining Russians in this case? Anyone born in Russia? Anyone who has ever held Russian citizenship? Would you exclude Alexandr Loktaev from competing? He is Russian born but has had Ukrainian citizenship for at least the last 11 years and races as a Ukrainian in all international events. He's currently in Ukraine and cannot leave because no military age Ukrainian male is allowed to leave the Country. He's still originally Russian, though, and just races under a different flag...So would you ban him?

I'm confused by the highlighted part. Unless I've missed something new, FIFA have said that Russia can continue to compete in World Cup qualifiers, they just aren't allowed to play in Russia. F1 have removed the Russia GP from the calendar but they haven't done anything about drivers so far. (I expect Mazepin to lose his seat, but for purely financial reasons rather than the FIA forcing him out)

Both of them live in Bydgoszcz in Poland and have Polish citizenship.

Are they? Which sports have stopped Russians from competing?

Oh jeez, that's horrific. I don't think I've ever seen someone get their foot stuck like that before.

Personally, I think that would be a backward step for speedway. I think the sport needs to move towards a more professional approach where riders are with ONE club only, but I know that very few in the UK agree with me on that.

Edinburgh 3rd makes me wonder more about drugs, to be honest.

The Gollob and Nilsen race?

Based on some tweets today it's looking like the Discovery Group are going to partner with BT Sport going forward rather than DAZN buying out the BT Sports business. That could be good news for those like me who want to watch speedway and MotoGP.

Yep. Exactly the complaint I have against the SoN compared to SWC...If I am going to support a "team", I want to see that team in every race.

Very interesting that it's a new Paul Bellamy company that is running the show for them. I wonder if this was put out to tender or if they just asked him if he could organise it? If the event is no longer being organised by the series promoters, you would think that the BSPL would have wanted to take back control of this major event in the UK...

I guess that's why they have scheduled the GP2 event for 1pm...to still give a reasonable amount of time to travel home after the event. Having said that, I am sure you are right and the attendance on the Sunday will be well down on the Saturday...A large number of those attending the Saturday don't stay overnight in the local area, which was why the Saturday event was moved to an earlier time a few years ago, to let people get home at a more reasonable time. Those people aren't going to travel back to Cardiff again for a GP2 meeting, I wouldn't have thought.

I'm not sure what your point was with this reply. Yes, he is coming to the UK rather than Poland because he CAN get a visa for the UK. Many others cannot so they head for Poland (or Denmark) instead.

It's not always possible for them. Most, if not all, of the young Aussies that have gone to Poland first have done it because they couldn't get a work visa for the UK but could get one for Poland.

It has Ellis listed under the squad for Grinsted on their page on that site, but I don't think those squad lists have been updated for 2022, even though it's a new site. https://speedwayligaen.dk/hold/gsk-liga/ The Fjelsted one certainly looks like the 2021 squad rather than the 2022 one.

The last report of an officially organised meeting at Shumen that I have seen was the "Shumen Speedway Open" in May 2016, which is presumably where the video you linked above came from. The reports said it had a crowd of over 5,000. I don't know what happened to stop events being held there. I'd be interested to know. In 2019 it was reported that former rider Georgi Petranov had taken over a stadium in Veliko Tarnovo that used to host speedway and planned to return it to the sport...but I haven't seen anything more about that project either.

Welcome to the forum...I'll try and give my thoughts on the current situation for countries, and in the style of the internet someone will correct what I get wrong but probably wouldn't have posted anything if they didn't have someone to correct Austria - Pretty much nothing during the last couple of years due to covid. A small number of meetings were held each year in the years before covid. Slovenia - Recently lost the Ljubljana track, but Krsko is still going strong and is currently receiving some major renovations to the track to try and improve racing. Croatia - Have a GP this year but pretty much nothing else gets held there other than FIM events. They have a great stadium but no riders now. New Zealand - Regular racing still going on but at a fairly low level. Canada - Not heard anything much from there recently. South Africa - Nothing. All tracks have now closed for bike racing as far as I am aware. Some other countries with regular racing that you didn't mention: Australia - Not as many tracks as there used to be but still a fairly solid number hosting relatively regular meetings and plenty riders coming out from there. Czechia - Regular league racing and individual competitions across several tracks. Russia - A small league still runs there with a reasonable number of riders. Slovakia - At least one track...Not sure if they have more, but it hosts several meetings a year. Italy - Lost their main track, Lonigo, a few years ago but it sounds like this might return. A few others tracks hold occasional meetings and there is a multi round national championship. Ukraine - Down to one track recently, at Rivne, but they hold several meetings each year including FIM events most years. Other tracks still exist but are not currently in use. Latvia - Two tracks, one with a team in the Polish lower leagues (Daugavpils) Hungary - A few tracks still running meetings there and some bigger efforts seem to have started recently to get new riders involved. Finland - A small league runs there with a few tracks holding meetings each year. Norway - Similar to Finland. Estonia - Had a couple of tracks running relatively recently and were involved in some competitions before covid. Not sure of the current state. Romania - Similar to Estonia. I've probably forgotten some Country or got some details wrong in there, but that's as I understand things just now. As for the Discovery group plans. It sounds like you are in the same position as the rest of us...They made some announcements but don't seem to have followed that up with any details on what their plans are exactly!

Much easier and cheaper for riders to just use one set of equipment and move it around the Continent... Race in Sweden on Tuesday and then drive across to Denmark for the Wednesday when they are needed for some extra cash.