Russia is, finally, facing immense heat from all across the world for its Ukraine misadventure. Russia has now been banned from taking part in several sporting activities by various federations, including FIFA and UEFA. It is also to be noted that Russia was severely penalized by the IOC in 2020 when it was barred from competing in Tokyo Olympics under its own flag and name after state-backed doping controversy broke out.
However, Russia is not the only country to be disallowed from sporting events as several countries in the past have been banned for various reasons. Today we will focus upon countries that were prohibited from competing in major events, especially Olympics.
South Africa
The Rainbow nation, the term generally used to describe the country post-apartheid, was banished from the world of sports for its repressive apartheid regime, notorious for the gross abuse of its black community. In this regard, the country was barred from taking part in the Tokyo Olympics and the ban remained in place for close to three decades. Also, in 1970, the International Cricket Council (ICC) struck off the country’s international cricket membership for the same reason. The country could only make its way back into the global cricket scene in 1991, after a gap of 21 years.
Austria, Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria & Turkey
These five countries were barred from participating in the 1920 Antwerp Games over their involvement in First World War. Likewise, Germany and Japan also suffered a similar fate in the 1948 London Games. These two were axis powers during the Second World War and were penalized for the same reason by the governing body.
Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe)
Rhodesia initially came into existence as a country solely for the whites. As a consequence, its participation was blocked by the IOC in the 1972 Munich Olympics on the grounds of racism. It came back to international sports later on when it redeemed itself as Zimbabwe. Interestingly, even Zimbabwe got banned in July 2019 by the ICC from international cricket for its board’s failure to end the government interference in sporting matters. However, the ban ended in October 2019 as ICC felt the country met all the prerequisites to be an independent entity that is free from any influence.
Afghanistan
In 2000 when the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan it attained notoriety across the world for ill-treating the women in its country. Resultantly, the Asian country was denied participation in the 2000 Sydney Games. This apart, the Taliban also set some outlandish preconditions for its male members to participate in the event that went totally against the basic tenents of the Olympics. So all these matters forced IOC to exclude the nation from the 2000 Games.
Kuwait
Kuwait Olympics Committee was suspended in 2015 for excessive government interference that undermined the spirit of the Olympics. But it was lifted in 2019 with the Gulf country deftly executing the roadmap agreed upon by all the parties. The committee had also been suspended in 2010, however, the suspension got revoked in 2012 before the London Games.
