Russian sports body in talks about switch to Asia
The Russian Diving Federation (RDF) is in talks with the International Swimming Federation (FINA) about switching to the Asian Swimming Federation (AASF) from the European Swimming League (LEN).
The development was confirmed to TASS on Sunday by the RDF’s president, Stanislav Druzhinin.
“We are in dialogue with FINA, unlike the European federation. We have a very difficult dialogue with it, it’s more likely that it doesn’t exist at all,” Druzhinin explained.
“We didn’t go to international competitions this year, but we work and talk with FINA. We have repeatedly told [FINA president] Mr. Husain Al Musallam that we would like to move to the Asian federation and leave the European one, to participate in the Asian Championship and Asian competitions.”
”FINA is thinking [about it], we are in dialogue with them, and I think that the international federation will come up with a decision soon,” Druzhinin added.
Druzhinin’s comments come after the president of the Russian Swimming Federation (RSF) Vladimir Salnikov, who is also a FINA bureau member, told TASS that the RDF could move to the Asian federation in the future.
Russian teams and athletes have been banned from most sports after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a recommendation to take such action on February 28 following the launch of the military operation in Ukraine.
FINA followed the advice on March 23, and also stripped Kazan of the Swimming World Championships (25 meters), which will now take place over December 13-18 in Melbourne.
The Russian Diving Federation’s potential switch comes amid speculation that the Russian Football Union (RFU) will also leave UEFA and head to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). RFU president Aleksandr Dyukov informed Russian media of the news a week ago.
“We will consider this issue at the executive committee. I’m not sure that a decision will be made, but the situation requires discussion,” Dyukov said, as quoted by TASS.
“UEFA considers us a member of the European family, we implement all programs, they participate in project financing, in our case it would be ugly to negotiate over their heads.”
“I said that it is important for us to hold official matches, we had two years of the coronavirus, and now a suspension,” Dyukov added.
