schema:articleBody
| - The national coach of Germany's women's beach volleyball team has joined a boycott of an upcoming tournament in Qatar over an apparent ban on bikinis on court, as the players' manager accused the Qatari federation of lying. National team coach Helke Claasen has decided not to travel to the FIVB World Tour event in Doha next month amid an escalating row over strict dress regulations. "She told me she won't go (to Qatar), because she doesn't feel respected there as a woman," Niclas Hildebrand, the sporting director of the German Volleyball Federation DVV told Sueddeutsche daily. Claasen's decision comes days after German playing duo Karla Borger and Julia Sude told German media they would boycott the tournament over the bikini ban. On Monday, the Qatar volleyball association said it was "not making any demand on what athletes should wear at the event". Yet Borger and Sude's manager Constantin Adam said this was "not true". "It's there in the regulations from February 16," he told AFP-subsidiary SID. The regulations, which are available on the World Tour website, clearly state that "it is expected that all participating women's teams use a short sleeve t-shirt... and wear knee-long sports shorts". They also provide a diagram showing the "minimum lengths" of clothing that athletes should wear to "comply with the local culture and tradition". In a decision supported by the German volleyball federation DVV, Borger and Sude said Saturday they "would not go along with" the rules imposed by the Qatari authorities. "It's not about whether we have more or less clothing on, it's about the fact that we are not being allowed to wear our work clothes to do our job," Sude told Der Spiegel magazine. Her team-mate Sude pointed out that Qatar had previously made exceptions for female track and field athletes competing at the World Athletics Championships in Doha in 2019. The country also allowed female beach volleyball players to compete in bikinis at the ANOC World Beach Games in 2019. Qatar has hosted an increasing number of major sporting events in recent decades, though its human rights record, lack of sporting history and brutally hot weather make it a controversial venue. kih/hmn/mw
|