[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] Tunisia banned from Davis Cup tennis next year over refusal to play Israel

From BBC:

Tunisia has been suspended from the Davis Cup tennis tournament after Tunisian player Malek Jaziri was ordered not to compete against an Israeli opponent last month.

The International Tennis Federation said there was no room for prejudice in sport and the one-year ban was a "fitting penalty".

Jaziri withdrew from the Tashkent Challenger last month ahead of a match against Amir Weintraub.

He was cleared of wrongdoing.

Officials found Jaziri - who had claimed to be suffering from a knee injury - had been ordered to pull out of the match.

The ITF board voted unanimously to suspend the Tunisian Tennis Federation for one year from the Davis Cup, one of the most important tournaments in men's tennis.

"There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society. The ITF Board decided to send a strong message to the Tunisian Tennis Federation that this kind of action will not be tolerated by any of our members," said ITF president Francesco Ricci Bitti.

Jaziri himself seems to have been against dropping out of the match:

The brother and manager of Tunisian tennis star Malek Jaziri on Monday slammed as 'shocking' the political pressure to boycott a match with Israel's Amir Weintraub from the authorities back home. This decision is "shocking, because it brings politics into sport ... We are totally against that. And Malek is the first victim, because tennis is his career, his bread-winner," Amir Jaziri told AFP. "To be clear, Malek pulled out for sporting reasons, because he was injured. He did his warm up, something was wrong and the doctor found that his knee was swollen," he said.

When Jaziri withdrew from Friday's match against Weintraub, in the quarterfinal of the Challenger tournament in Tashkent, he also cited knee problems. "'After the meeting at the ministry of youth and sports with Riadh Azaiez, I regret to inform you that you cannot play,'" Amir, said quoting the email, and referring to the director of the country's sporting elite at the ministry.

Both Jaziri, who is currently ranked world number 169, and Weintraub are members of the same top-flight tennis club in France – Sarcelles Tennis – north of Paris and have known each other for years through their sport. Contacted by AFP, the club's president Jonathan Chaouat said Jaziri was in fact the reason for Weintraub's recruitment by the club. The 29-year-old Tunisian, who has declined to talk to the press since withdrawing from the tournament in Tashkent, could have risen to 135th had he won.

The ministry insisted that it had nothing to do with the order instructing him not to play, stressing that the decision came from the tennis federation. Amir said he didn't know whether his brother would have played the match if he hadn't been suffering from a knee injury. But he said he failed to understand how such an order could be given after Malek had already played Weintraub and "Tunisia has played Israel in the 2009 Fed Cup."

Last April, the sports ministry recalled the national Taekwondo team after it met Israeli sportsmen at a competition in Belgium. "The ministry ordered an immediate inquiry because of the encounter between members of the national Taekwondo team and the Israeli team in an international competition abroad, without consulting the relevant authorities," the ministry said at the time. But it never announced the result of the inquiry. The Tunisian authorities have never officially banned sporting encounters with Israeli nationals, and since Jaziri's decision to withdraw from the tennis tournament in Uzbekistan no such directive has been made public.

Jaziri's Facebook page has many comments of "bravo" although the context is not clear.

It is nice to see a sports federation do the right thing.



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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 11/03/2013 05:00:00 PM