Should Laguta and Emil be kicked out of the GP Series?

[HenryW]

2 hours ago, old bob at herne bay said:

The situation may solve itself, as if Laguta and Sayfitdonov are currently in Russia they will have extreme difficulty travelling anywhere else at the moment (Belarus  excepted).

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

[old bob at herne bay]

Thank you Henry W.

Will be a brave Polish promoter that lets them ride in Polish League speedway.

[BluPanther]

 

[1 valve]

Speedway supporters almost certainly agree that the two Russians involved in the GP series are innocent of any political views v the Ukraine. 
However, they are Russian and as per FIFA’s actions & that of F1 the speedway authorities must ensure  there is zero inclusion of Russians on the global stage until Putin and his cronies are put firmly in the box they need to be sentenced too. 
 

[HenryW]

36 minutes ago, 1 valve said:

Speedway supporters almost certainly agree that the two Russians involved in the GP series are innocent of any political views v the Ukraine. 
However, they are Russian and as per FIFA’s actions & that of F1 the speedway authorities must ensure  there is zero inclusion of Russians on the global stage until Putin and his cronies are put firmly in the box they need to be sentenced too. 
 

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)

Edited February 27, 2022 by HenryW

[Humphrey Appleby]

6 hours ago, enotian said:

So yes a big ask but I don't think we can continue with these quasi bans which allow Russians to compete just without a flag or anthem. 

I thought that was farcical appeasement given their 'ban' was because of state sponsorship of doping programmes. To then allow them back to compete as a Russian team, however it was dressed up, was no sanction at all.

No particular problem with Russians continuing to compete as independent individuals (e.g. tennis players and speedway riders), but teams and individuals officially representing Russia should not be allowed. 

Life isn't fair. When the UK left the EU, British citizens immediately lost a lot of rights regardless of how they'd voted in the referendum, and that wasn't even about starting a war.  

[Humphrey Appleby]

8 hours ago, Technik said:

Simon at the time was in dispute with the ACU. At the time he was the World Long Track Champion & wanted to race in all the major events in the European calender. THE ACU insisted that Simon must race in the British grasstrack championship for which he would have been happy to do, however as he had missed the previous seasons championship he would need to ride in a minimum of 6 club events then the qualifing round before the British final & if he didn't do this then the ACU would not enter him in the Long track Championship. Simon was not prepared to give up 8 weeks racing as the champion & found a loophole. That loophole was to race under a Dutch licence, Their only stipulation was that he would race for the Dutch speedway team also. Ironicly another rider was also having issues with his own federation at the same time. The Italian Armando Castanga & both riders represented the Dutch national team in a pairs event in Russia.

Well it's a difficult one as it would hardly be fair on other riders if there was an established qualification process that one rider could bypass. As it was, he still had to do a certain number of meetings in the Netherlands (one of which was a speedway meeting that I went to), although from memory they were on Saturdays so maybe he didn't need to miss an lucrative grasstrack/longtrack bookings as a result.

I seem to remember though, that riders needed to finish in the top 20 of the British Masters to get a licence to race internationally, which strikes me as being nothing but restraint of trade and probably illegal. 

[Grachan]

4 hours ago, Humphrey Appleby said:

No particular problem with Russians continuing to compete as independent individuals (e.g. tennis players and speedway riders), but teams and individuals officially representing Russia should not be allowed. 

 

 

That's pretty much where I stand too

Danil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev are still playing in tennis tournaments.

Both have spoken out against the war and Rublev, in particular, has been quite high profile about it. He wrote an anti-war message on a camera lens after a match last week and also played in a doubles match with a Ukranian partner.

I don't see the positions of Laguta or Sayfudinov being any any different. They are riding as individuals, although some sort of comment on how they feel about the situation in Ukraine might not go amiss.

[1 valve]

8 hours ago, HenryW said:

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)

Whoops. I meant to type “inclusion of Russian teams” rather than “Russians” 

[Grachan]

10 hours ago, Blupanther said:

 

I missed this earlier. If this is the real Emil then I see no reason why anyone should be against him competing.

[hammer1969]

29 minutes ago, Grachan said:

I missed this earlier. If this is the real Emil then I see no reason why anyone should be against him competing.

I don't know how, or even if, Emil and Artem voted and who for in the Russian elections but unfortunately at present they and all Russian sports persons need to be excluded from competing in other countries whether as individuals, part of a team or under a different flag.  Yes it is hard on those Russians who don't agree with Putin but what about the Ukranians whose lives have been turned upside down.  The sanctions being put in place against Russia have to be adhered to 100% as Putin seems to have completely lost the plot.

[Humphrey Appleby]

1 hour ago, hammer1969 said:

I don't know how, or even if, Emil and Artem voted and who for in the Russian elections but unfortunately at present they and all Russian sports persons need to be excluded from competing in other countries whether as individuals, part of a team or under a different flag.  Yes it is hard on those Russians who don't agree with Putin but what about the Ukranians whose lives have been turned upside down.  The sanctions being put in place against Russia have to be adhered to 100% as Putin seems to have completely lost the plot.

If they also have Polish citizenship then that would be academic anyway.

[The Third Man]

13 hours ago, Blupanther said:

 

Well done Emil

 

[The Third Man]

12 hours ago, HenryW said:

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)

Yes Russia can still compete, although their opponents in the world cup ply offs have refused to play against them, so unless the ever corrupt FIFA change their stance they will get a bye to the world cup finals

and the F1 GP has been cancelled, although one paper has reported that they don't want people to ask for their money back on tickets yet because they might still be able to run it

[iris123]

I did see this a few days ago an thought it was the real Emil. Who knows, maybe both are or none

  

[HenryW]

5 hours ago, hammer1969 said:

I don't know how, or even if, Emil and Artem voted and who for in the Russian elections but unfortunately at present they and all Russian sports persons need to be excluded from competing in other countries whether as individuals, part of a team or under a different flag.  Yes it is hard on those Russians who don't agree with Putin but what about the Ukranians whose lives have been turned upside down.  The sanctions being put in place against Russia have to be adhered to 100% as Putin seems to have completely lost the plot.

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? 

[Grachan]

39 minutes ago, iris123 said:

I did see this a few days ago an thought it was the real Emil. Who knows, maybe both are or none

  

I'm not sure that they are actually Emil. There is no blue tick to confirm it as real, whereas Tai Woffinden's account has that. They could be fan accounts.

Edit - they could be real if you look at some of the people following the Emilsayfutdinov89, account (eg Kelvin Tatum, Jason Crump, Alun Rossiter, Jason Doyle, Darcy Ward, Natilie Quirk).

Edited February 28, 2022 by Grachan

[HenryW]

3 minutes ago, Grachan said:

I'm not sure that they are actually Emil. There is no blue tick to confirm it as real, whereas Tai Woffinden's account has that. They could be fan accounts.

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).

[Grachan]

The IOC is now calling for a ban on all Russians from World sport.

IOC calls for ban on Russians from world sport (gulf-times.com)

[Technik]

28 minutes ago, Grachan said:

The IOC is now calling for a ban on all Russians from World sport.

IOC calls for ban on Russians from world sport (gulf-times.com)

After reading this statement from the IOC I don't think the FIM have any option but to exclude Sayfutinov & Laguta & all other Russians from any of their events. I would also assume they will issue a directive to all member federations to exclude any competitor or official from any events within their territory.

I understand this is a tough call on the riders but it is my opinion that we are in a forced position that we must treat all Russian nationals in the same manner. Of course there are good & bad in all aspects of life & I bere no ill will to those mentioned but we must stand united against the actions of Mr Putin.