CAA roots for tougher rules to curb athletes switch of nationality

NAIROBI, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Africa Athletics governing body CAA on Thursday urged for tougher laws to curb the transfer of allegiance of its star youth runners to foreign countries.

CAA president Hamad Malboum Kalkaba said they are pushing for the safeguarding against exploitation of talent from the continent and lauded recent efforts done by the world athletics governing body IAAF to curb the same.

"The CAA has always pleaded for tough laws in respect to the transfer of allegiance, which is increasing especially to the benefit of the golf monarchies and Turkey," Kalkaba said in a statement issued in Nairobi.

Kenya alone has over 50 young and experienced athletes representing other countries. This trend is not expected to slow down ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Kalkaba has set off a campaign to stop this influx.

"We had an IAAF Council meeting in Birmingham, which dealt with several topics among which the transfer of allegiance which causes an important prejudice to African athletics," said Kalkaba.

He said that the IAAF council agreed on a number of measures in stop the migration of athletes to Qatar, Bahrain, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and more oil-rich states, which included a three-year period of no competition to anyone switching his nationality.

"We will also create a review panel, which will determine the credibility of the applications and see the evidence that countries grant full citizenship and associated rights. No transfer of athletes below 20 years.

Kalkaba said with these decisions, Africa should be able to keep its best talents and benefit from its champions in order to shine again in the international competitions. Enditem