People create ideas and people destroy them. Sport, and especially the Olympic Games, were supposed to perpetuate the idea of peace, but nothing came of it. Already the ancient Greeks were breaking truces, and the modern world completely ignores canonical obligations.

From the Second World War to the war in Ukraine, our planet has been bathed in blood. It has been happening for so long and so often in different places on Earth that humanity has managed to get used to it. And the new generations know no other world than one where there are always people somewhere killing each other in some war.

    SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE 
     “There is no consent for war” – politicians like to rant. So? Well nothing.... Putin doesn’t ask for consent, Bashar al-Assad doesn’t ask, Slogan Milosevic or Radko Mladic didn’t ask.... They don’t care and don’t differentiate – slaughters here, and the Olympics there. Apparently, this is the way it is supposed to be, if it has been like this for a hundred-plus years.

The International Olympic Committee does not even pretend to defend its own ideals. The boycott of the Moscow Games was ordered by politicians of the West. The boycott of Los Angeles was ordered by politicians of communist countries. The IOC organised and bravely conducted both Games despite the war in Afghanistan.

On 8 August 2008, war broke out in South Ossetia involving Russian troops. On 8 August 2008, the Beijing Summer Olympics began. Vladimir Putin was seated in the VIP box and received with honours.

4 days after the Winter Olympics in Beijing, Putin ordered a “special military operation” in Ukraine. As the “operation” billowed into a genocide and the Russian army’s actions were reaching the standard of war crimes, the Paralympic Games were blissfully going on in Beijing.

The scale of the barbarity of this war horrified everyone. The world of sports had to react decisively this time. But a firm reaction is a classic oxymoron in this environment. Sport can’t do that, because it doesn’t want to and avoids tough reactions like the plague.

Don’t piss off Putin

Which is not to say that athletes are incapable of empathy and understanding, quite the contrary. A wave of solidarity with the victims of the war has spread widely among athletes of various disciplines and countries. Support is also being expressed by Polish athletes, some openly speaking out about the war.

Kuba Błaszczykowski has donated PLN 250,000 to help Ukraine. Iga Świątek takes every opportunity to publicly recall the war drama. She also did so after her victory at Roland Garros. She is planning a tournament with celebrities to help the devastated country.

It looks worse for the sports officials, however. While the British federation has excluded the Russians and Belarusians from Wimbledon, the ATP and WTA have taken away the rights of other tennis players competing in the event to earn ranking points.

The ITF (International Tennis Federation) has gone further, allowing Russians and Belarusians into Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Grand Slam tournaments under a neutral flag.

What does this mean? Only that they will continue to make big money, and the ITF will make its money on them. Putin’s aggression changes nothing in their professional and social lives. Why? Well, because “politics and sport should not mix”.

This fable of the bad wolf and Little Red Riding Hood is the flagship argument of various governors deeply concerned about the ideals of both sport and world peace, populating the rich federations, starting with the IOC, that divide and rule the industry.

High representatives of sporting bodies use this argument with exceptional conviction in the moments of danger – not so much political, but rather threats to their business. Politics is not supposed to get in the way of business, and since sport equals business, therefore “there is no consent”.

FIFA and UEFA were mightily frightened not necessarily by Russian aggression, but by the prospects of being cut off from Russian cash. From the start, they have been scheming how to behave so that uncle Putin would not get pissed off at footie he so generously supports.

They had no desire for sanctions, and they voiced it publicly. UEFA accepted Russia’s application to host Euro 2028. It said it had no plans to move the Champions League final from St Petersburg in May. And on 24 February, it wished everyone “a nice Thursday” on social media.

FIFA delayed its decision to exclude the Russians from the World Cup in Qatar. The Poles didn’t want to play the qualifiers against Russia, so they pressured the federation and others joined in. Had it not been for environmental pressure and, I suspect, political pressure, it would have taken much longer.

WAR IN UKRAINE

Someone wrote that it was a good thing, so now it doesn’t matter that the football federations have been forced to do it. A more fatuous conclusion is hard to come by. Even a moment’s hesitation, in the face of the butchery that the Russians have inflicted on the Ukrainians, lays a dismal record on these organisations.

Such things must not be forgotten, because they prove what really counts. The declared values of the free world or mainly money. That is how you know who is who. When the trying times come, this is easier to determine, so remember well.

Gazprom has, Gazprom shares

It is not only the sports officials who have remembered the rule not to mix sports with politics. It is repeated like a mantra by Russian athletes proclaiming that they feel wronged. But there are also those who express solidarity with Vladimir Putin. The list is extensive, here are some well-known names and clubs.

Yevgeny Plushchenko, figure skater; Yevgeny Klimov, ski jumper; Aleksandr Powietkin, boxer; Ivan Kulak, gymnast; Sergei Kariakin, chess grandmaster; Ska Neftianik and Dynamo Moscow hockey players. They serve the propaganda of the aggressor.

There are many more like them, and no wonder. For this regime, sport is the crème de la crème of propaganda worth any price. Any amount of money for champions and any bribe to cover doping. Gazprom has and Gazprom shares, because Putin orders it.

Sanctions on Russian sport and Russian athletes are a heavy blow to the dictator. Athletes were his soldiers on the propaganda front, heroes of Great Russia, whether they were aware of it or not. But others do not necessarily embrace the current situation.

A bizarre display of intellect and historical knowledge was given by Tomasz Adamek, otherwise a boxer. In his version, the separation of sports from politics is proper, so one should not get involved, which he tried to prove in an interview using such revealing arguments as:

“I think these are internal issues...this is a war, a civil war. It used to be the whole USSR, I don’t remember how many years ago. If they interfere, there will be no peace and they will demolish all of Ukraine.” Strong words for a candidate for a Member of the European Parliament, therefore a would-be politician.

In this context such a statement can hardly be considered funny. But, on the other hand, we were probably lucky that someone who does not know that Ukraine is a sovereign state invaded by Russia did not become our MEP.

In the end, almost all federations imposed some kind of sanctions on Russian sport. Some left the door open for unexpected opportunities. Only tennis did not hide, it blew the gates wide open under the falsehood that it was for the “neutrals”.

These are the days of farewell ceremonies. The top of the class in these ceremonies turns out to be the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, which imposed sanctions in March and had them revoked in June by a decision of the Court of Appeal, which belongs to the federation in question.

This course of action so grabbed the heart of Mr Oleg Matytsin, Russia’s Minister of Sport, that he revealed a secret he had long carried within himself to share with humanity one day: “without Russian sport, the true development of sport is impossible”. And all is clear!

This precedent promises to continue. Bobsleigh next to football is poverty stricken in every respect. There is no comparison between the two sports, either in terms of popularity or finances. Football will not survive for long without Russian money, either directly or indirectly.

In other athletic sectors, it is similar. Russian volleyball or basketball players are drawing audiences and sponsors. Already everyone is counting the losses and the hours until they start to make up. Unsuspend the suspended, reinstate the excluded. Pressure is mounting throughout the sport.

Russian agitprop

The nervous atmosphere also affects the players, who do not really know what to do. This is especially true for those who have found themselves in Russian clubs amid the war and sanctions. There are also Poles among them, whose fortunes have become very complicated, problems are piling up and everyone has their own.

But there are at least two common themes: contracts and the public assessment of behaviour in these circumstances. The termination of contracts requires longer arrangements, but an opinion of a person is formed in an instant, usually in the form of a heated attack on the internet.

Almost everyone goes through it. Mateusz Ponitka, captain of the Polish national basketball team, took a severe beating when he played a game in the colours of Zenit Saint Petersburg against CSKA. He was not spared by Marcin Gortat, a fellow player, either.

According to critics, the ceremonial divorce took too long. His brother Marcel went faster, probably because he had a shorter contract. Mateusz came to the country, but had to return to Russia to close things out. Only then did the smoke start to clear.

Zenit put out a message that the Pole was only on a short holiday. The haters went after him, as if they had come down from a tree with no idea what Putin’s propaganda is or how it works. In the end, the contract was terminated, but the problem of the Russian agitprop remains.

The disinformation, the lies, the manipulation of statements make us be careful in our assessments. Trolling on the Internet is what the Kremlin propaganda is all about. If Polish athletes want to return to their country, then let them at least get a beating up from their own kin. Simple as that.

Volleyball player Malwina Smarzek and her colleague Bartosz Bednorz were insulted. She – for her statement (she publicly regretted that she had to leave and thanked the Russians and the club Lokomotiv Kaliningrad), and he – for his silence, because he did not leave Kazan for quite a long time, where he played for the Zenit team, and in addition, he blocked his social media, hence the conclusion that he supports the aggression, because he does not protest in public.

Another uproar concerns Grzegorz Krychowiak, who took advantage of a FIFA clause allowing footballers playing in Russia to have their contracts suspended for six months and moved to AEK Athens. His attitude was considered exemplary, but the devil is in the details.

FIFA has given permission for temporary transfers exactly until 30 June. After the season, the players are to return to the clubs with which they are bound by long-term contracts. Krychowiak has such a contract with FK Krasnodar until 2024.

The “Sport-Express” portal reported that the footballer will stay in Russia. Reportedly, such arrangements were made with the club by his manager. And now, how to read it? As fake news made in Russia, or not necessarily. Perhaps as a probe into the reactions of the Poles and the Polish Football Association?

If the information were to be true, there is nothing to probe. His compatriots will run over Krychowiak like a steamroller over sand, and the Association will strike him from the national team, like Maciej Rybus. Why should it be any different?

Rybus has a Russian wife and two children and explains his choice with this, which certainly did not convince the fans. According to them, he did it for the money, because he was not married to Spartak Moscow. Krychowiak would have it worse, but you don’t know how it really is and how it will be as long as the Russian agitprop is alive and kicking.

Three more of our footballers are playing in Russia: Rafał Augustyniak, Sebastian Szymański and Gabriela Grzywińska. It is difficult to predict their further fate. It would be easier to extricate them from this trap if a foreign club would simply buy them out. But there are no takers so far.

Pure hypocrisy

The war in Ukraine is not a computer game and the athletes stranded in Russia are living people and not virtual characters. Without a thorough knowledge of the facts and concrete circumstances, no one should be eternally condemned. Especially if the self-proclaimed judge is lying on the couch, with a cold one, to improve his mood.

The groups holding power over world sports are a different matter. They give enough cause for criticism. Their reaction to the outbreak of the war was embarrassing, and there is now a period of sham correctness, but appearances are not the same as real beliefs.

It is not only bobsleigh and tennis that are closer to Minister Matytsin’s views than those manifested by the vast majority of countries and nations. I fear that many federations are impatiently waiting for a good moment to lift sanctions from Russian athletes.

Putin planned a three-day “military operation” and flowers to welcome him. He has instigated a war that is now in its fifth month. His army is greeted by bullets and his soldiers return in coffins. No one expected that on 24 February the world as we know it would change and the future would hang by a thread.

Ukrainian athletes put on uniforms, fight and die on the frontline. In this situation, the concern for Russians who cannot put on shorts to battle in arenas for the fame and glory of Great Russia seems something offensively indecent.

So what if some Russian athletes are outstanding, if they dress up as stateless athletes like at the Beijing Paralympics, when it’s clear who they are and who they really represent. Never mind those fools who parade with the “Z” sign on their tracksuits.

They are all citizens of an aggressor country that commits crimes against civilians in violation of all civilised conventions and laws. You cannot look away and pretend that these are just innocent games of sport. Because this game is not pure any more. Only hypocrisy is pure.

As I know this environment, sports dignitaries will now start to look intensively for loopholes and ways around the sanctions, which is already happening. War is war, but the cash has to keep coming in, and it’s not just Gazprom that has been providing it, but also the Russian stadium and court champions.

The war is on and there is no telling what it will end. The world of sports can cope without the Russians. But can the world cope with the war in Ukraine? That depends on the solidarity of the world, and sport is a part of that. Its chiefs have no influence on politics, but they do have influence on sport. The question is – will they use it wisely?

– Marek Jóźwik

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

– Translated by jz