Nine EU countries urge EU to cut funding for sports bodies after Russia return

Nine European nations have urged the EU to cut funding for international sports bodies that have allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to competition, Estonia’s culture ministry said. The proposal targets major organisations including the IOC, World Aquatics and the International Fencing Federation, and calls for excluding them from EU programmes such as Erasmus+. The move follows the IOC executive board’s July 7 provisional lifting of Russia’s suspension. The nine nations argue Ukrainian athletes are affected by the war and cannot train under equal conditions