Statement of the FIL Executive Board on the decision of the FIL Court of Arbitration in the case FIL Executive Board v. Russian Luge Federation

Berchtesgaden (FIL) The FIL Executive Board takes note of the verdict of the FIL Court of Arbitration of April 7th, 2022, in which the Court of Arbitration annulled all measures imposed on March 2nd, 2022 against the Russian Luge Federation as a consequence of the war between Russia and Ukraine for legal reasons.

The FIL Executive Board intends to have it checked in a suitable manner as to whether any sanctions of any kind against the Russian Luge Federation are actually legally permissible for reasons of “political neutrality”, anchored in the FIL statutes. 

The members of the FIL Executive Board, but also the majority of the member federations of the FIL, cannot and do not want to behave neutrally regarding the war of aggression by Russia against the Ukraine.

Even knowing that the measures against the Russian Luge Federation have been lifted for legal reasons, the FIL Executive Board is still fully committed to the measures decided on March 2nd, 2022 until revoked, such as:

• The FIL Executive strongly condemns the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and Belarus;
• Russia is not authorized to host events sanctioned by the FIL;
• All Russian athletes, coaches and officials are barred from all FIL sanctioned events;
• Russian representatives in various commissions and working groups appointed by the FIL Executive will be suspended from their offices.

The FIL leadership, together with the FIL Legal Committee, will look for possibilities to solve the unsatisfactory situation caused by the arbitration judgment of the FIL Court of Arbitration by means of a possible change in the statutes, which would have to be decided by a 2/3 majority at the ordinary FIL Congress on June 18-19, 2022 in Riga/LAT.

In international sport, too, it should be possible to impose sanctions on sports associations and members of a country's association that demonstrates behavior contrary to international law that has been confirmed by a UN body or the IOC.

The FIL Executive Board would like to assure our so severely tested luge family and the entire population in the Ukraine their unbroken and unrestricted solidarity once again. 
An urgent appeal is made to Russia to end this cruel and unjustifiable war of aggression against Ukraine immediately.