As a follow-up to what we reported earlier this week concerning Sri Lanka’s national swimming federation being suspended by FINA, the world swimming governing body has now imposed four restrictions on the Sri Lankan organization.
The suspension was brought about due to the Sri Lankan Aquatic Sports Union (SLASU), which is Sri Lanka’s swimming federation, moving forward with elections FINA had previously deemed unacceptable. On May 15th, even though FINA expressed concerns about interference from the Sri Lanka Sports & Tourism Ministry and issued a directive to postpone the elections, a portion of clubs proceeded with the elections as scheduled.
As an immediate response, FINA suspended those newly-elected board members and reverted back to the pre-election committee members as an interim solution. FINA has now also instituted the following set of sanctions, which were made effective June 17th.
- No voting right at the FINA General Assembly (Ordinary and Extraordinary);
- Participation of the athletes under FINA Flag, FINA Code for Accreditation and FINA Hymn (in case of victory) during the FINA Championships/Events;
- FINA recognizes the former board of directors, as the interim Executive Committee, until new elections are conducted according to the principle of Autonomy;
- The suspension shall be respected by all FINA members.