Time for the sports world to really deal with Russia

Apparently, it takes an invasion, bombing, terrorizing and murdering the innocent before the sports world will hold Russia accountable for its actions.

Because up until Russia chose to invade Ukraine this week, it was still acceptable for the largest bodies in sports to do business with Vladimir Putin and his regime. The sports world saw Putin pull the let’s invade Crimea from Ukraine trick right after the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

The 2022 version of a full-country invasion is worse in every way, all happening less than 48 hours after the Olympic torch went out in Beijing’s Bird's Nest.

World governments are enacting tough sanctions on Russia to decry its invasion and war, but there is another side that needs to be explored to turn more screws on Putin.

Time get the sports world away from Russia.

Need receipts? OK, let’s crack the box:

• Formula 1 was set to race in Sochi on Sept. 25. It also has been canceled, powered by a driver boycott, more than an overt willingness by the organization to take a stand. Superstar Sebastian Vettel was the first to demand action, and kudos to him for standing up. Vettel, of Germany, is part of the Drivers Association and made it easier for others to express their feelings.

• The biggest elephant in the room: the Russia-not-Russia team that just competed in the Beijing Games and its Paralympic team for the upcoming Winter Olympics. The IOC urged all sports organizations to immediately cancel events in Russia and Belarus (a willing accomplice helping Putin invade). But is the IOC going to finally be able to stand up to Russia and kick them entirely out of the Olympics/Paralympics? None if this "You are here, but not here", shit. The Russians have straight up been caught cheating with PEDs, over and over, and yet they still can walk into the party through the front door. End the farce. They need to be gone until they can prove they are stand in all the light. I don’t have the emotional energy to get into the world of what will happen to Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old skater who tested positive for cardiac PEDs, and her abusive coaching team that is celebrated in Russia. The team skating medals, including Russia’s in-limbo golds, have not yet been awarded…but Putin is set to honor the team with state laurels.

Chelsea's Roman Abramovich is under fire, with calls to strip his ownership of the soccer club. He is a noted crony of Putin's, amassing billions in likely unsavory ways. (A side sport to his sick show is tracking where his mega-yachts are harboring around the world.)

Another big oligarch and Putin buddy, Alisher Usmanov, has played with big stakes in Arsenal and Everton. His company, USM, throws cash around as soccer sponsors.

Both are attracting attention from the British Parliament, where debate is happening over seizing their ownership stakes and overall roles in sports. Don't look to The Premier League to be pro-active, even though it has its Owners' and Directors' test, aka how corrupt can you be and own a team. So far, the Russians, especially Abramovich, have not flunked the EPL final exam.

However, Abramovich may be holding the get out of jail card in this game of High Street Monopoly: Chelsea owes him $2 billion from a loan made to the club from its controlling company - him.

European teams have feasted on Russian sponsorship money, with one of the highest profile being Germany’s Schalke 04 with Gazprom…the Russian natural gas company that controls much of Europe’s energy. Schalke dropped Gazprom yesterday, removing their title sponsorship from the front of its jerseys. Iconic Manchester United has the Russian airline, Aeroflot, as one of its big sponsors. ManU hasn't taken any action - yet - on that.

I feel bad for top Russian athletes, from the tennis courts to the NHL ice, who are being asked what they think about what is happening. They are left in a horrible position, wanting to perhaps say how they feel, but also knowing their families still are in Russia. Speaking out against Putin likely comes with retribution, even if you have your name etched on the Stanley Cup.

Tennis player Andrey Rublev made his feelings known after winning his match in Dubai today. Rublev won a doubles title last week in Marseilles, teaming with Ukrainian Denys Molchanov. Yeah, this stuff is all hitting home, even if you are far from it.

There is a lesson being reinforced in the nightmare we are globally witnessing, live and uncensored in HD, in Ukraine. Sports is never just sports. These games and events serve as the place where we deceive ourselves. It is our magic castle away from this terrifying reality, letting us focus on the trivial: wins and losses, debates over stats and wondering why our favorite team rules or sucks. We need happy places to retreat to, ways to have identity, community and purpose.

The tattered mirage of stick to sports is a quickly atomizing fog. The sports world is all up in this.

The mayor of Kyiv, now toting an automatic weapon and vowing to protect his city, is former champion boxer Vitali Klitschko. His brother, Wladimir, a Hall of Fame boxer, is vowing to join his brother in the fight.

A group of Brazilian soccer players and their families are stuck in Ukraine and can’t leave. Most recent AC Roma coach Paolo Fonseca is in Kyiv with his family, and is tweeting about it. His wife is Ukrainian.

American athletes play basketball in Russia, Ukrainian athletes play for American college teams. Russians coach American ice skaters. And on and on in our shared lives across the globe.

We are all connected as athletes, coaches, and fans.

The challenge to the world’s biggest sporting organizations, teams, and owners is simple: stand up to Russia, and its accomplices, for this invasion and war by removing them from the places where the cash flows. The tennis tournaments, the Olympics, the races, the soccer matches must be gone from Russia - both as a host and a competitor. The sponsorship money that so easily slides into the European coffers needs to be rejected. The athletes representing Russia at the national/elite team level, sorry, you’re with Russia. No exceptions. You can’t come either. This has to be real.

That also means, if the IOC was brave, they would take Russia out of the Olympic mix entirely. Now. Not in a few months and a few more meetings over canapés at a luxe Swiss resort. Now. Goodbye. I am sorry for the innocent athletes. But this is bigger than a title or medal. This is about standing up, as a world, to aggression and evil, and some big-time cheating on top.

Aggressors roll over those who remain polite and passive. Bullies thrive on the oxygen they steal from the good. And evil bastards like Putin, who is ensuring his name will forever be uttered along the most damned who murdered the innocent, need to be looked in the eye without blinking.

This is already a terrible tragedy for so many, with war crimes and the Hague part of the conversation. I can’t even imagine the terror of the families hiding in the subway tunnels, just wanting to go home and live their lives. Human savagery is a sick part of our mortal coil, look at Syria and so many other places dismantled by evil leaders. It’s awful and wrong. And before you ask, yeah, I know. Where was the world for the Syrians or even now, the Uighurs in China? I don't have those geo-political answers.

It should not be hard to say no to Russia, even if we're just kicking around a soccer ball.

Money is money. We know sports can be a powerful force for dictators to build national pride and identity. It's time to kick Putin and his posse in their wallets and pride. We owe it to each other.

Open Court publishes on Tuesdays and Fridays, bringing you the stuff we need to talk about with author and sports journalist Joanne C. Gerstner.

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