Reply to Wimbledon banning Russian and Belarusian Players

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Great decision! Who in the world is against it?[/quote]

Quite a lot of the sporting world including most of the tennis world, both the men's tour (ATP tour) and the women's tour (WTA tour) that represent the non-grand slam tennis tournaments and the bulk of professional tennis world wide.  Plus many other athletes from other sports are also supportive of the players.

The problem is that tennis is not a nationally sponsored sport.  Tennis is largely individuals from around the world that compete on a tour  They individually choose which tournaments on which continents to play.  They hire their own teams of coaches, trainers, practice partners.  They travel on their own.  They are more like independent contractors than as representatives of their country.  This is not like World Cup or Olympic teams which often are sponsored by the governments of their countries.  Additionally the athletes have no voice and often are very apolitical.  There are very few ties between the athletes and their native governments, and many of the athletes don't even live in their home country much, if at all.  Many tennis players move to and live in areas where there are good sports supports including academies, training facilities, etc.  Many of the international athletes live in the US or Monaco (Monte Carlo), Paris or other locations where they can locate and be central to many tournaments or training facilities.

Because they are largely independent of their governments and are not sponsored, nor do they share their winnings with their home nation (other than through taxation), it is not making a particularly big statement against Russia or Belarus to be banning these players from playing.  What the ATP and WTA tour has enacted is that these players can continue to compete on the tour but may not play under their national flag.  They play under a neutral, non-national flag right now.  It is essentially like they are homeless by national origin for the duration.

The actions that Wimbledon is taking does not punish or protest against the Russian or Belarussian governements other than decreasing the taxation on any winnings these players may have earned at the tournament.  This is entirely different than banning national representative teams from international sport.[/quote]

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