History will judge IOC and Fifa as opportunistic hypocrites over Russia

It took just eight days, and a war, for the International Olympic Committee to pull off an audacious mid-air manoeuvre that would not have been out of place on the slopes of the Winter Olympics. For much of February, as Beijing hosted the 2022 Games, the IOC was insistent: there is no place for politics in sport. “With regards to the Uyghur population, the position of the IOC must be to give political neutrality,” said the president, Thomas Bach, in early February.

Yet just a week after the curtain fell on the Winter Olympics, the IOC radically backflipped. “In order to protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants,” the IOC executive board resolved on Monday, Russian and Belarusian athletes should be excluded from international competition. “The IOC reaffirms the call of the IOC president,” the statement continued. “Give peace a chance.”

All of which begs the question: why are crimes against the Uyghur people and human rights violations in China just fine, but invading Ukraine beyond the pale? After a Winter Olympics replete with resort to neutrality, this blatant hypocrisy provokes a certain feeling of whiplash. Through this inexplicable sporting lens, it seems as if some atrocities are OK, but Russia crossed the line by marching on Kyiv.

The IOC has at last done the right thing. Given the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russian participation in international sporting competitions would be unthinkable right now. Fifa, too, deserves some credit for excluding Russian teams from international competitions. The human cost is regrettable – ordinary Russian athletes, many of whom have no links to President Vladimir Putin’s regime and play no part in this current insanity. Yet a