President of the Russian Handball Federation (FGR) Sergei Shishkarev reported that he attended the Champions League Final Four in Cologne and held talks with world and European handball leaders regarding the participation of Russian teams in international competitions.
Previously, Russian teams and clubs were suspended from participating in international handball tournaments due to the situation in Ukraine. The players of Russia’s national youth and youth teams sent an open letter to the President of the International Handball Federation (IHF) Hassan Mustafa and the President of the European Handball Federation (EHF) Michael Wiederer, in which they were asked to be authorized to participate in international competitions.
— The conversations with Hassan Mustafa and Michael Wiederer can be described as instructive. Once again we heard words of support from them. Dr. Mustafa spoke about his speech at the IOC meeting, where he expressed the position of the Russian side, which was ready to delegate teams and clubs to tournaments without flags and anthems.
We once again drew attention to the fact that without the participation of Russian teams, the level of women’s and men’s competitions inevitably drops. We have agreed with Hassan Mustafa and Michael Wiederer that the FGR will make another call regarding the return of Russian teams to tournaments under the auspices of the IHF and EHF. This is all the more important as there are only two years left before the Paris Olympics. We plan to seek the admission of our country’s representatives on the international scene in all global judicial forums. For this, the FGR is ready to compromise and incur additional costs – for example, if it is necessary to play matches at neutral venues,” Shishkarev told FGR’s press service.
Source : MatchTV
