Sports Sanctions Against Russia Through The Lens of The Court of Arbitration for Sport

The Russian invasion of Ukraine prompted the vast majority of international sports federations to adopt some kind of coercive measures against Russian and Belarusian clubs and athletes. While athletes in individual sports were generally allowed to participate without representing their country of nationality, international sports federations hosting team-based events suspended teams from sanctioned states from participating therein. Pertinent decisions were driven not by the sanctions imposed unilaterally or multilaterally. Rather, they were precipitated by logistical and safety factors, as well as the likelihood offinancial harm to the competitions under their aegis.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sided with the arguments set forth by FIFA and UEFA, effectively agreeing that large scale sanctions against a state are likely to harm the safety of all stakeholders to international sporting events, while at the same time producing financial and reputational harm on the tournaments themselves. The broad language of constitutive instruments of international sports federations confer broad powers upon their executive organs to adopt relevant decisions.