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≡ ISRAEL OUT OF FIG WORLDS ≡
“On 10 October 2025, the Indonesian government issued a statement that Israeli athletes due to participate in the competition were not granted visas. The IGF subsequently filed two appeals to CAS with requests for urgent provisional measures.
“The first appeal, filed on 10 October 2025, is against the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) requesting the annulment of the FIG statement issued the same day, ‘taking note’ of the Indonesia’s decision not to issue visas to the Israeli delegation.
“The second appeal, filed on 13 October 2025, is joint with six Israeli athletes who qualified for the championships (Artem Dolgophyat, Eyal Indig, Ron Payatov, Lihie Raz, Yali Shoshani and Roni Shamay) and is also against the FIG. This appeal requests that CAS orders FIG to take the necessary measures that guarantee Israeli participation in the championships, or in the alternative, to move or to cancel the championships.”
That’s the Court of Arbitration for Sport summary of the appeal lodged by the Israel Gymnastics Federation with CAS issuing a notice on Tuesday that it rejected requests for “urgent provisional measures”:
“The IGF argued in their appeal that the FIG Statutes require the FIG Executive Committee to pass a decision in case entry visas are not granted to all participating delegations. They also argued that the absence of a decision constitutes a denial of justice, thus creating a situation of discrimination against a member association.
“The FIG emphasized that it has no prerogatives in the issuance of entry visas in Indonesia and that the fact that Indonesian authorities have refused to grant visas to Israeli individuals falls entirely outside the competence of the FIG. …
“Both requests have been rejected. The first appeal will be terminated due to a lack of jurisdiction. The second appeal is still ongoing.”
The Israeli Gymnastics Federation has accepted the reality and posted two messages on Instagram:
● “CAS ruled – the Israeli delegation will not go to the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
“We have just received with great disappointment the CAS ruling regarding the departure of the Israeli delegation to the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Indonesia, according to which the delegation will not be allowed to go to the championship.
“We are so disappointed for the gymnasts, male and female, and professional teams, but not only. We are deeply concerned by the recent decisions that could negatively affect the future of all our delegations and the future of sport in general.
“We continue the fight, hoping to achieve justice, but unfortunately we will no longer be going to this World Championships.”
● “Today we were informed that our team will not go to the World Championships. This is hard, painful, unfair news. But it is precisely in these moments that our true strengths are revealed.
“We see you and you, the hard work, the faith, the big heart. The coaches who fought until the end, and the gymnasts who continued to dream, even when the path became impossible.
“Today we will no longer participate in the World Championships, but we stand tall, united, proud.
“We will grow out of this crisis, we will come back stronger, and we will continue to fight so that in the future our flag will fly exactly where it deserves.
“Artem, Eyal, Ron, Lihi, Yahli, Roni, and the coaches: Sergey, Mia and Roni – we are very proud of you. We believe in you. With you every step of the way.”
So the event will go on, beginning on Friday and ending Sunday. But the impact will go longer.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport summary, although unofficial, underlines the limitations of the forum. This is an arbitration mechanism designed to resolve issues between multinational sports organizations, not governments.
As the CAS summary stated, the Israel Gymnastics Federation asked for the “annulment” of the FIG acceptance of the Indonesian government’s decision not to issue visas to its delegation. The CAS “reply” is important:
“The first appeal will be terminated due to a lack of jurisdiction.”
CAS has no power over governments, or to make an International Federation challenge a government over a governmental decision not to issue visas.
So, taking this further, there is no recourse for a sports body – such as the International Olympic Committee – to coerce a host country to issue entry visas to any delegation it does not like, regardless of any contractual guarantees it may have made in the process of being named as host.
This is a bad precedent for gymnastics, for the IOC and for every International Federation. FIG has options, but will clearly not exercise any of them.
The only question is when this will next be seen and where. IOC President Thomas Bach (GER) worked tirelessly on this issue during his two terms, especially concerning Russian athletes in the aftermath of the doping scandal and then also Belarusian athletes after the invasion of Ukraine. He largely won that fight, with a small number of Russian and Belarusian “neutrals” allowed to compete in Paris.
So far, the IOC under new President Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) has not been heard from.
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