The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is not able to financially help the Russian Athletic Federation (RusAF) pay its $10 million fine to World Athletics, ROC Chief Stanislav Pozdnyakov told Sputnik Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th June, 2020) The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is not able to financially help the Russian Athletic Federation (RusAF) pay its $10 million fine to World Athletics, ROC Chief Stanislav Pozdnyakov told Sputnik Thursday.
RusAF was stripped of its membership in World Athletics in 2015 due to numerous doping violations. The global athletics body later slapped it with a $10 million fine, the first half of which is due to be paid out before July 1, 2020.
"The Russian Olympic Committee in this case cannot help financially in any way. We have 500 million rubles [$7.2 million] planned for additional training of athletes in summer sports. We would have to suspend funding to all [sporting] federations and find an additional 200 million [rubles] to transfer them to our World Athletics counterparts," Pozdnyakov said to Sputnik.
The Olympic official went on to lament the fact that Russian athletes are being held hostage to financial difficulties in the sport, detailing the financial troubles World Athletics is experiencing.
"Of course, everyone is in a difficult situation... To be honest, it is unpleasant to know that our leading athletes have become hostages of World Athletics in this situation. Of course, this does not add credibility to this organization," Pozdnyakov said, calling on all sides to make difficult but necessary decisions.
Pozdnyakov explained that the sports industry as a whole is experiencing falling revenues for a number of reasons, such as the loss of advertisers and unsuccessful startups.
"There are publicly available materials on the finances of World Athletics. According to published data, in 2017 and 2018 this organization had a negative balance of $20 million. By the end of 2019, World Athletics had already requested funds from future IOC [International Olympic Committee] income from the sale of television rights to broadcast competitions in Tokyo 2020. If World Athletics is making such requests, their financial situation is not the strongest," the official posited.
Russia has long been painted as a bad actor in international athletic competitions due to repeated claims of doping.
Along with RusAF, the ROC itself and the Russian Anti-doping Agency have both been sanctioned by their respective international bodies. Russian athletes that prove they have not participated in illicit doping are forced to perform under neutral colors with no Russian insignia whatsoever.
Russian officials have repeatedly denied the existence of a distinct doping program, although authorities have admitted some isolated cases of doping violations.
