PSA cancels all tournaments in Russia
By ALAN THATCHER – Squash Mad Editor
(Updated February 28, 2022)
The World Squash Federation has reacted to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia by moving the World Junior Championships from St Petersburg.
The tournament is scheduled for August 9-20 and the WSF is now looking for a new venue.
The invasion, ordered by crazed dictator Vladimir Putin, has led to an immediate sports boycott of Russia.
Major events already moved away from the country include the Champions League football final, set for the Gazprom Arena in St Petersburg, which will now take place in Paris. Formula One’s Russian Grand Prix, scheduled for Sochi, has been cancelled.
Earlier today, the Board of the World Squash Federation held an extraordinary meeting to discuss their response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
They issued a statement saying: “The WSF World Junior Championships 2022, scheduled to be played 9-20 August in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be relocated from Russia to an alternative venue, details of which shall be released in due course.
“The WSF condemns in the strongest possible terms the ongoing Russian military invasion of Ukraine. As the global governing body for squash, the WSF is committed to promoting peace through our sport and ensuring the safety of all participants in WSF Championships.”
Squash Mad recently published an interview by Rosanna Radlinska-Tyma with Sergey Belyaev, who is working hard to grow squash across Russia.
Sergey had just welcomed former world No.1 James Willstrop to his club in Moscow and James spoke enthusiastically about the passion for the game being demonstrated by newcomers.
This week’s events mean that squash will join all other Russian sports in the wilderness until that toxic, narcissistic, murderous little dictator is removed from power at the Kremlin.
Update, February 28, 2022:
The Professional Squash Association (PSA) has cancelled all sanctioned tournaments in Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
No other tournaments on the PSA World Tour, PSA Challenger Tour or WSF and PSA Satellite Tour will be allocated to Russia until further notice.
The PSA condemns the ongoing Russian military invasion of Ukraine and stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Also today, football’s governing bodies FIFA and UEFA acted jointly to suspend Russian teams from international competition.
In a joint statement the two organisations said: “Fifa and Uefa have decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both Fifa and Uefa competitions until further notice.”