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Time to kick muddah-f*cking Russia out once & for all?


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1) This de-russification of the sporting world now is going to have long term consequences for the power and influence of Russia within the world of sport. Russia and Italy have always had oversized influence in the sporting world. This will damage that.

2) Because of Covid, this is a major world championship year. Russia will not be at either of the marquee Worlds

3) The friendliest IFs have turned rather quickly on Russia (ISU, IIHF)

4) I guarantee broadcast and sponsorship partners have had a lot to do with this. Majority of the sponsorships come out of the West and with sanctions sponsoring events in Russia is going to be a hard pass.

 

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1 hour ago, Sir Rols said:

They’re safe… for now

IOC members from Russia set to retain posts despite recommended athletes' ban

Whereas I think this is the second Russian IF leader to fall on his sword

Oligarch Usmanov stands aside as FIE President in wake of EU sanctions

I saw the both articles earlier today. What is really disturbing about the first one is the IOC put their foot in their mouth by saying the only reason for banning Russian and Belarussian athletes is to create a level playing field since the Ukrainians cannot necessarily compete. Then they go on to say their recent calls for banning flags and stripping competitions from Russia were directed at the Russian government and they don`t want to penalize the athletes. That's like a country saying we will sanction Russia economically but only the government not the Russian people. It's all or nothing and I don't know why the IOC had to go down this route of trying to once again separate the politics from athletics when the two are intertwined.

I'm really hoping the FINA short course championships get moved to a country where Russian airlines are banned and visas for Russians are revoked. I'd really like to see how FINA and the IOC would react to that situation.

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1 hour ago, Guilga said:

This could really become a mess if it takes so long to find that new host. Given the circunstances, wonder if it´s better to choose a non-qualified team to host (to replace Russia because of the current events) or to choose an already qualified team to host and add a wild card(to not make a mess out of it). 

But about this part in specific; for real, if everything goes wrong, the new host country could become a more puzzling one than Russia. In addition to what you said, Poland could also be a intersting choice; they will also host the Women´s Champioship with The Netherlands, but it might be too close to the chaos to be viable.

This makes Japan a great choice with no proximity to the conflict even with Russia being too large that they have a (maritime)border with them too; also, for some unlikely reason (due to the reasons that you told me before, even if i still  thinks it could be fun in the right time), if the current Brazilian president of FIVB decides to go home, or the president that brought us the most useless Copa America in history decides to intervene with a pandemic still happening just like that time(CANNOT STRESS ENOUGH, sorry about that bloke), i wonder if i would be as pissed with Brazil getting it as i was with Comnebol that fateful day. We could try, but with a pandemic rolling around and public carnaval being delayed to April because of the Omicron, that would be as tasteless as that news that Copa America was moved to here. (It could be really funny if Argentina wins it as well, though) 

Wonder if there is another country at the Americas or Asia that could host it and not make a diplomatic mess out of it.

 

It has to be a country from one of the top 5 Men's teams so that the live fans can cheer their team to the end.  Japan Men's is I think ranked #8 or something.  So they might even be eliminated in the quarters.  Poland & the Netherlands are already hosting the women's.  It'll be too much for them to also host the Men's, It should be France AND Italy.  For France, it will be a rehearsal for the Olympics, just a year earlier than the planned test event of 2023.  Italy's men -- without Russia there -- is surely among the Top 5 teams (Poland, France, Brazil, Italy, USA).  

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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36 minutes ago, baron-pierreIV said:

It'll be too much for them to also host the Men's, It should be France AND Italy.  For France, it will be a rehearsal for the Olympics, just a year earlier than the planned test event of 2023.  Italy's men -- without Russia there -- is surely among the Top 5 teams (Poland, France, Brazil, Italy, USA). 

Oh, an extra Test Event for the 2024 games! This sounds a massive argument for it, then; in this case, it would be best to host the later stages of the tournament(in particular the abyssal monstrosity that is the final six) in France alone also, especially given that Italy just hosted the previous edition with Bulgaria (FIVB is doing some weird co-hosting as of late, huh? Wonder if they will ever reach Comnebol giving the same Copa América to Argentina and Colombia...before covid, of course.)

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This is all extremely worrisome, at least to me. People celebrated at the start of WW1 and the American Civil War, and current jingoism and anti-Russian sentiment (IE demanding that all Russians living in the west denounce Putin or lose their jobs) seems very similar.

We are staring at the possibility of 10+ years of insurgency in Ukraine and possible nuclear war, with the potential for over a million deaths even if there are no nukes launched. Half a million Ukrainians are already refugees and it is only the first week of the war. Russia, a country where the average citizen already lives in poverty and spends the majority of their paycheck on food, is going to face economic ruin worse than their economic disasters of the early 1990's. 

Russia has to be sanctioned to drain their ability to sustain a military campaign and the Ukrainians resupplied with weapons, but the west absolutely has to give Putin a face-saving way out of this. 

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1 hour ago, Nacre said:

Russia has to be sanctioned to drain their ability to sustain a military campaign and the Ukrainians resupplied with weapons, but the west absolutely has to give Putin a face-saving way out of this. 

I dare to oppose here. Fuelling the Ukrainians up with weapons but not helping them out with airstrikes or such that would actually make it possible for them to win this war will just increase the death toll. Either we stand with Ukraine or we don't care. But the current way of doing things will just aggravate the humanitarian crisis.

Let's just hope the Finnish are smart enough to get under the NATO nuclear shield as long as Russia has to focus on Ukraine. When a wild man lashes out wildly, sometimes the only choice is to put him in a straightjacket.

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2 minutes ago, Sir Rols said:

Though I don’t think it’s GamesBids’ first dick pic

I've checked this site on similarweb a few weeks ago (unfortunately now it doesn't seem to work any longer for smaller sites). Apparently, "IKEA dog penis" was among the top 10 search engine keywords that linked to this site. :lol:

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1 hour ago, Sir Rols said:

Well, Rob, if we weren’t blocked in Russia already, you’ve just made sure of it…

Though I don’t think it’s GamesBids’ first dick pic

Really, you have to zoom in quite a long way to class that as a dick pic.

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That's why I've always held -- and I know Sir Rols agrees with me -- that the Paralympics should always COME BEFORE the regular OGs, if they are to be effective.  They should serve as an appetizer to the real Games -- not the dessert when the world will already have had its fill or in this year's case, Olympic indigestion and absolutely no more appetite for the Paralympic Games.  I don't know why it's so hard for the IOC and the IPC to figure that out.  

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Maybe that argument worked 30 years ago. Since Sydney and certainly since London it's been working fine the way round it is.

The first ceremony should be the Olympic opening. I dunno, it'd feel weird going into an Olympics and Olympic OC with two ceremonies and one Games already under our belts.

Edited by Rob.
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9 minutes ago, Rob. said:

Maybe that argument worked 30 years ago. Since Sydney and certainly since London it's been working fine the way round it is.

The first ceremony should be the Olympic opening. I dunno, it'd feel weird going into an Olympics and Olympic OC with two ceremonies and one Games already under our belts.

Well, yeah, -- but now, granted it's unusual.  it's still like, we should worry about sporting competition when innocent people are literally fighting for their lives?  I mean, doesn't the contrast mean anything to you?  The world's energy and focus should be on helping the beleaguered country -- not a peripheral "celebration" of sport again -- with a hypocritic host again.  :blink:

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16 minutes ago, Rob. said:

I mean, I'd prefer it the decision about which way round the two Games happen isn't based on guessing what the world's worst dictators might do.

To me, logistically, it makes more sense to put all the extra adjustments for not only the Para athletes but also the handicapped accommodations at the venues for spectators at BOTH events BEFORE the Games -- rather than as an after-thought.  But then I guess that is IMHO.  

Edited by baron-pierreIV
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Honestly, both games should actually happen together, as para atlhetes are as much as the olympic ones. Treating the Paras as a dessert after the main meal is kinda disrespectful given the purpose of them.

Anyway, back on topic; IPC letting Russia and Belarus being neutrals for realsies makes sense when the games is that close to start, that could be in the exceptions of the IOC recommendations. Some atlhetes of these two might already be in Beijing, so it's better let them be. BUT, in another case of the IPC doing things better than the IOC, after the games they will convene with their members to discuss about punishment for Olympic Truce violations and even about suspending or EXPELLING Russia and Belarus. That might be interesting to see unfold...

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I don't know...there were athletes already present for the planned skiing world cups in Russia last weekend and they went home. No reason it couldn't have been done here for the Russian/Belarussian Paralympians either. I think that's still *slightly* less hardship on those athletes than on the Ukrainian ones literally fearing for their lives and that of their families right now.

And we all know that even though there will be no Russian flag displayed, once they return home with medals (that do not count for the official medal table LOL) around their necks, they'll be given a hero's welcome by Putin & co.

As for the post-games discussion...I'll believe it when I see it. The IPC (and the IOC) can conveniently hope for time once their major events are over for another two years and if by then Russia has swallowed up Ukraine and the Western world's resolve is cracking, they'll wiggle a bit with their fingers and that'll be the end of that. Cynical, I know, but what can you expect really...

 

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5 hours ago, baron-pierreIV said:

That's why I've always held -- and I know Sir Rols agrees with me -- that the Paralympics should always COME BEFORE the regular OGs, if they are to be effective.  They should serve as an appetizer to the real Games -- not the dessert when the world will already have had its fill or in this year's case, Olympic indigestion and absolutely no more appetite for the Paralympic Games.  I don't know why it's so hard for the IOC and the IPC to figure that out.  

I can’t remember what I used to say of the paras, but saying they should be the appetiser rather than the dessert sounds likely. Integrating into the main games would probably be the best on paper, but a nightmare logistically.

Have the Ukrainian para athletes made it to Beijing? It would have been good to see the reception they got as they marched in if this wasn’t China - and covid locked-down China at that.

I’ve got muted interest in them at the best of times, but especially now after just making it to the finish line in the main event and seeing an invasion in the interim, I just have no appetite at all for revisiting “and now back to the Big Air at Shougang”. 

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Quote

 

China asked Russia not to invade Ukraine until after the 2022 winter olympics had concluded, revealing that Chinese officials had some knowledge of Putin’s plans for an invasion of Ukraine, reported the New York Times’s Edward Wong and Julian E. Barnes:

A Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official.

The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia met with President Xi Jinping of China in Beijing on Feb. 4 before the opening ceremony of the Olympics. Moscow and Beijing issued a 5,000-word statement at the time declaring that their partnership had “no limits,” denouncing NATO enlargement and asserting that they would establish a new global order with true “democracy.”

The intelligence on the exchange between the Chinese and Russian officials was classified. It was collected by a Western intelligence service and considered credible by officials reviewing it. Senior officials in the United States and allied governments passed it around as they discussed when Mr. Putin might attack Ukraine.

However, different intelligence services had varying interpretations, and it is not clear how widely the information was shared.

Read the full article here (paywall). 

 

:angry: :angry: :angry:

I think it’s time we also kicked Muddah-f**kin’ China out

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Should that really come as a surprise, though? In addition to talking about joining forces to push back against the U.S., on the opening day of the Winter Olympics, of all places, they surely also talked about other things, besides their 'love' for one another. I, quite frankly, am not surprised. And gives more credence that the Chinese really don't care about the Paralympics at all.

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