European Athletics President's Statement on Athletes Transferring Countries
Statement by European Athletics President, Svein Arne Hansen - July 11th 2016
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We have just witnessed a truly excellent European Athletics Championships with great performances, incredible emotions and wonderful stories. New European champions have been crowned and many stars for the future have emerged.
Here in Amsterdam, many people have been discussing the issue of transfer of allegiance, whereby athletes switch the country for whom they represent in international competitions.
This is, of course, a matter where the IAAF is the ultimate authority and in my role as an IAAF Council member I will be raising this at our next meeting.
Firstly, we need to be clear that any athlete who is granted refugee status can be fast-tracked to compete for a new country if appropriate. This cannot be questioned.
However, we in European Athletics believe there is a need to look more closely at the appropriate conditions for a change of nationality and the length of time before eligibility is granted to compete.
European Athletics – and the other Area Associations – must have a say on this as the attractiveness of our events is impacted. Improvements need to be made for the good of our sport. This is clear.
We in Europe will be discussing internally and coming to a common position so that we can contribute to the IAAF’s decision-making process.
