IESF Rules That Russians Must Compete Under Neutral Identity

Following a Ukrainian Esports Federation complaint and investigation a letter sent to the Russian Esports Federation from the IESF reveals that they will now have to compete under a neutral identity

Sources from within the IESF hierarchy have presented this publication with a letter regarding a ruling for the upcoming World Esports Championships in Riyadh. Contained within the communication is a ruling from the IESF governing body explaining to the President of the Russian Esports Federation (RESF), Dmitry Smit, that Russian competitors must wear neutral colours and compete under a neutral flag should they attend.

The decision comes after a chain of events surrounding the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In April 2022 the IESF membership decided to ban Russians from participation in any IESF sanctioned tournaments. By August the following year the RESF had managed to persuade the IESF to hold another vote for their re-admittance, which was successful. At that time the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) put in a proposal to expel the RESF entirely which was rejected.

After their re-admittance Smit said the following in a public statement:

“Sport should unite, and any form of discrimination against athletes based on nationality and any other grounds is unacceptable. Therefore, we are glad that we were able to achieve the cancellation of the previous decision, and our team will finally compete under its own flag.”

The re-admittance would have permitted Russian competitors to display their flag and for the tournament to play their national anthem, a decision that prompted the UESF to say they would be boycotting all further IESF competitions. In a Telegram channel the Executive Director of the UESF said the following:

“We're shocked. Everything should be different. We made speeches, we negotiated with almost every country about our position, everyone expressed support, but it turned out to be only in words.

We put up our candidate to the IESF board (management), but after this situation we decided to withdraw it, because we do not want to be involved in the management of this "dibilism". We will block all IESF championships until they change their decision. Our national teams that are currently competing in the Romanian championships will be encouraged to do so as well, but we cannot force them to do so. They will make the decision at their own discretion.

We will also be making an international lawsuit to have this decision reviewed and overturned, and to have the voting information officially publicized. It is important for the whole world to see how each country voted.”

However that wasn’t the end of the matter. In January the UESF filed another complaint with the IESF pointing to the fact that the RESF had established offices in occupied Ukrainian territory, prompting a secret vote that ruled to temporarily suspend the RESF from competition. In a public statement regarding the second suspension the IESF said ““After careful consideration of the facts, the IESF Board conveyed a secret ballot and decided to suspend the RESF’s good standing. IESF strongly condemns all war, hate, political interventions and discrimination.”

Following their own investigation while the IESF found merit’s with the UESF’s complaint they have decided, due to “the importance of inclusivity in esports,” to allow Russians to compete under a neutral identity with no mention of their Russian nationality. It isn’t clear at this time whether this will alter the UESF’s decision to boycott IESF tournaments.

The full letter is below: