No French National Teams for players and coaches who sign contract with Russian or Belarusian teams

French Basketball Federation announced that all the players and coaches that sign with Russian and Belarusian teams cannot play for France’s NT until the war in Ukraine is over.

Recently Livio Jean-Charles joined CSKA Moscow, Louis Labeyrie inked with Unics and Thomas Heurtel is reportedly close to Zenit St. Petersburg.

This is the press release of FFBB, via BeBasket.

The players and coaches that sign a contract with a Russian or Belarusian club, as long as the conflict is ongoing, will no longer be available for French National Teams.

In addition to sanctions and measures aimed at limiting partnerships and other financial support from entities with links to the Russian state and Belarus, international sports federations, including FIBA, have decided to exclude national teams, clubs and Russian athletes in international competitions. The French BasketBall Federation (FFBB) supports all of these measures.

Meeting on July 28, 2022, the Federal Bureau decided that players and coaches who sign a contract with a Russian or Belarusian club can no longer be selected as long as the exclusion measures from all international competitions are in force. This decision also applies to players and staff members who have already signed with a Russian or Belarusian club.

To this end, all the delegations selected in the senior men’s and women’s French team are invited to sign a sworn statement to participate in international rallies and competitions. Players and staff members will have to sign this certificate, indicating that they are not engaged and will not engage with a Russian or Belarusian club for the duration of the conflict with Ukraine.

It is indicated that if this commitment was not respected, the player or staff member would then no longer respect the selection criteria for the next international deadlines, including the 2024 Olympic Games.