First administrative steps taken

The World Curling Federation has adopted an emergency ruling with the goal of banning Russian curling teams from this year’s upcoming world championships.

A WCF news release announced that following legal consultations regarding one of their constitution articles, the WCF Board has inserted a new rule in to the current Rules of Curling and Rules of Competition:

Rule C1(b): The Board of the WCF may remove a team or Member Association from any WCF event if in the sole opinion of the Board their presence at the event would damage the event or put the safety of the participants or the good order of the event at risk.

The remaining clauses within Rule C1 shall be renumbered to incorporate this rule addition.

The new regulation has been passed to the Member Associations of the WCF, who now have three days to voice their objections to its adoption.

Should there be no objections, then at the conclusion of the three-day evaluation window, WCF will then begin the process of removing the Russian Curling Federation entries from the upcoming 2022 world championships.

The world women’s championship is scheduled for Mar. 19-27 in Prince George, B.C. while the men’s championship runs Apr. 2-10 in Las Vegas.

The WCF made a final statement in its news release:

“The World Curling Federation strongly condemns the military action undertaken by the Russian Government in their invasion of Ukraine and continues to hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to the situation.”

This action comes hot on the heels of the WCF decision to strip Russia from hosting the 2022 European Championships.