Estonia has lost its right to host the European Fencing Championship over denying visas to athletes from Russia and Belarus

Estonia has forfeited its right to host the European Fencing Championship this June over its refusal to ensure access to the event for Russian and Belarusian athletes, the country's fencing federation head has confirmed.

Tallinn won the right to host the event back in 2024 but faced troubles with the bid late last year after the International Fencing Federation (FIE) greatly simplified the rules for 'neutral' athletes to participate.

The FIE has pressed Estonia to provide written guarantees that it will allow all athletes into the country regardless of their citizenship or military rank, yet Tallinn refused, explicitly stating it would not issue visas to athletes from Russia and Belarus no matter what.

The insistence on barring fencers from the two countries ultimately cost Estonia the right to host the event, Secretary General of the Estonian Fencing Federation (EVL), Aivar Paalberg, confirmed on Friday. The FIE made the decision on January 14 but communicated it to Tallinn only recently, he told the newspaper Ohtuleht. The right to host the championship has been transferred to France, Paalberg added.

Speaking to the newspaper late in December, the official explained that the simplified FIE rules only required 'neutral' athletes to "sign a declaration that you are against war" with no background checks required. 

"Basically, you can also be a military officer and say that you are against the war - for a neutral person, that's enough," he claimed. At the time, Paalberg said that Estonia had been pressed by international sporting officials, including President of the European Fencing Federation (EFC) Pascal Tesch and Secretary General Jacek Slupski, into accepting the new rules and signing the guarantees. 

"Their interest was precisely whether the Estonian government would issue such a letter. It's not organizational at all; it's political," he said.  

Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from most international competitions, including the Olympics and Paralympics. A number of international sporting bodies over time permitted some to compete individually under neutral flags, while a few organizations dropped the bans altogether.