Recently, the Malaysian government disallowed Israeli squash players from entering the country to compete in the World Team Squash Championship held in Kuala Lumpur, by rejecting their visas. This led to the cancellation of the event.
The government’s refusal to allow the Israeli players from participating has rubbed the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the wrong way.
Based on a report by The Jerusalem Post, the IOC has issued a warning and has threatened to ban Malaysia from hosting international sporting events due to ‘political discrimination’.
They added that if the government wishes to host, then they must provide written assurances to the heads of sports federations that allows all eligible athletes and teams to compete and participate, and that they will be treated fairly and without any political discrimination.
The authorities will also have to follow through on these written assurances.
If long-term solutions are not implemented to prevent such incidents from happening again. The IOC shared that failing to do so will lead to exclusion from the right to host international sporting events “until all the necessary assurances can be obtained and respected.”
Malaysia isn’t the only country to receive this warning as Serbia had also disallowed players from Kosovo to participate in the AIBA World Boxing Championship.
Do you think hosting countries have the right to disallow players from other countries from participate over political disagreements?
Share your thoughts on this in the comment section.
Also read: Children Born Overseas To Malaysian Mums & Foreign Dads Can Now Apply For Citizenship!
