Sports Minister: Assessment to determine whether female tennis players skipping Olympics should return funding

Minister of Youth and Sports Eduard Novak told a press conference today that the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee (COSR) must proceed to the evaluation of the financing provided to female tennis players in recent years in order to determine whether they owe money to the state or not, given their refusal to participate in the Tokyo Olympics. Novak said that the Romanian Tennis Federation's argument for the players' skipping the Olympics due to injuries doesn't hold water as long as they participate in WTA tournaments. "It's not acceptable for a federation to declare that the reason for non-participation is injury, whereas these athletes are playing at Wimbledon. (...) It's true, the Sports and Youth Ministry didn't fund the Romanian Tennis Federation for 4 years because of quite serious legal issues, but COSR did provide financing, therefore COSR must proceed to a clear assessment and make a decision if it can lay claims for a refund from these athletes or not, because this funding was intended strictly for some very important specific projects," Novak said, adding that he is waiting for the tennis players who refused to participate in the Olympic singles event to visit him at the Ministry headquarters. ''I didn't talk to them because they are not in the country, they are playing in tournaments and we didn't meet. But when they return, I look forward to seeing them at the Ministry," said Eduard Novak. Asked when will the Sports and Youth Ministry pay the Romanian Tennis Federation the 5 or 6 million euros the Federation claims to be entitled to following a final court decision, Eduard Novak answered: "We must see what this is about because this decision, that we owe the Romanian Tennis Federation 5 or 6 million euros didn't reach me; if this were the case, I think the executor would have already been at our door. So I don't know if this is accurate. But we'll check and we'll know for sure." Last week, Minister of Youth and Sports Eduard Novak voiced his dissatisfaction that several female Romanian tennis players refused to participate in the singles event of the Tokyo Olympics (July 23 - August 8). Romania will be represented in the tennis competition only in the women's doubles event by the pair Monica Niculescu and Raluca Olaru. AGERPRES (RO - author: Marius Tone, editor: Mihai Tenea; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)