DOSB President Alfons Hörmann does not expect a boycott following the IOC’s decision on Russia and at the same time takes FIFA’s “Mutko case” into account.
“I assume that after one or two days of reflection, reason will return to Russia,”Hörmann told the SID:”It is the only bridge between Russia and world sport that still exists. I am convinced that the athletes who meet the rigorous test criteria are on site.”
On Tuesday, due to the doping scandal of next year’s Winter Games in Pyeongchang, Russia’s IOC (9th World Cup in Pyeongchang) was held on Tuesday. till 25. February) excluded. However, under certain conditions, Russian athletes are allowed to compete as neutral athletes. In an initial reaction, the Russian government refrained from a boycott. President Vladimir Putin has yet to react.
In the case of former Sports Minister and current Vice Premier Witali Mutko, who was banned from the Olympic Games for the rest of his life, Hörmann took FIFA to task. They had to deal with “the extent to which Mutko was still” acceptable “at this exposed point in the World Cup project. The Russian official is President of the Russian Football Association RFS and Chairman of the World Cup Organising Committee.
“Anyone who so gravely violates the values of sport has no place in a leading position in other areas of sport either,”said Hörmann:”FIFA has set up a powerful and neutral ethics committee. I assume that the entire process will be examined in this committee in a timely manner and that the relevant decisions will then be taken at FIFA level.”.
FIFA reacted cautiously in an initial statement on Tuesday evening. Whether the ethics commission would intervene was left open. Samuel Schmid, head of the responsible IOC commission, had declared:”The then Russian Minister of Sport had the ultimate administrative responsibility for the committed actions during this time”.