CHENNAI: The hosting of the 2018 Women’s World Championships was supposed to be stepping stone of sorts for India after the Under-17 World Cup and before the FIH Hockey World Cup in Odisha. But what initially looked like a minor controversy at the event is threatening to snowball into a major storm that will most likely lead to dashing India’s hopes of hosting international events in future.
The controversy began a couple of days ago when reports of Kosovar boxer Donjeta Sadiku and her two coaches being denied visas began to surface. With Sadiku having an Albanian passport and Boxing India officials taking steps to use that to get her a visa, the storm that was supposed to blow over. Except, it did not! The catalyst was a totally unrelated event being held in Spain — the Karate World Championships in Madrid. The Spanish government banned the Kosovar flag and while athletes participated in the event, they had to do so wearing a neutral uniform.
This prompted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to issue a statement proposing that no further events be held in Spain until they sort this out. “If the Spanish Government are not in the condition to guarantee access not only to Kosovo but to every athlete to compete, we should warn all international federations that, until this is solved, they should not hold international competitions there,” an IOC official was quoted as saying. Indian Olympic Association (IOA) officials fear that India could face the same fate unless the Ministry of External Affairs sort this out. “This had happened last year as well,” said IOA president Narinder Batra.
“Now that it has happened again, this will be a huge problem for India. I fully expect a letter similar to the one that Spain got to come before the weekend. Brazil does not recognise Kosovo, but their athletes participated in the Rio Olympics. Argentina does not recognise Kosovo, but their athletes went to the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. The entire middle-east does not recognise Israel but their judo team participated in UAE (in the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam 2018) under their flag and anthem. Politics should be kept separate from sport and doing otherwise is against the spirit of the Olympic movement.” The sports ministry has also taken note of this apprehension.
“Since it is an international relations matter, we won’t have the final say over this,” said sports secretary Rahul Bhatnagar. “But we have sent all necessary documents to the ministry of external affairs and asked them to take a decision on this.” Asked on IOA’s apprehension, he said: “We have not seen any official letter from the IOC but there is an apprehension in IOA which we have considered and we have appraised the MEA of this. But now it is up to them.” BFI president Ajay Singh also conceded that it was up to the MEA. “We are still talking to the Ministry of External Affairs.
It is a sensitive issue, I don’t want to comment much on it,” he said during a press conference in New Delhi. Sources within the organisation also revealed that they had initially expected Sadiku to use her Albanian passport. While the MEA remained tight-lipped, sources said that the chances of a visa being issued were bleak because ‘India does not recognise the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Kosovo’. sports@newindianexpress