OREANDA-NEWS. The president of the Russian Handball Federation (FGR), Sergey Shishkarev, expressed disappointment with the players of the country's youth national team, who were suspended from the competition due to suspicion of betting.

"The facts revealed by the ethics commission cause me not only indignation, but also a feeling of deep disappointment towards young players. I equate this with treason to the Motherland, "- the FGR website quotes Shishkarev.

According to him, many efforts are being made to bring men's handball out of the protracted crisis in which it has found itself in recent years. "We can try to improve the sports component, but the best technologies, equipment and scientific groups are not able to instill moral and ethical norms that make capable athletes great athletes who defend the honor of their country," Shishkarev added.

Lev Voronin, the general director of the FGR, also expressed his indignation. "They took the liberty to trade not only the honor of the team, not only the name of the clubs that delegated them to the national team, but also the actual honor of the country. As a person who has spent his whole life in professional sports, I believe that such people have no place in handball, and I advocate the most stringent measures to stop the spread of this infection,"- he said.

Earlier it was reported that suspicions of unsportsmanlike actions of handball players caused several matches of the 2021 European Championship. In the tournament, they lost six matches out of seven and took 15th place out of 16.

According to the results of the investigation initiated by the ethics commission, it was found that a group of players had formed within the national team, which maintained contacts with the organizers of bets. Eight players were suspended: Dmitry Kandybin, Alexander Morozov, Nikita Gogolev, Dmitry Frolov, Daniil Dmitriev, Maxim Naidunov, Maxim Ermolin, Georgy Kirilenko.

The Executive Committee of the FGR will hear the report of the ethics Commission at the next meeting on September 29 and discuss further actions to combat unsportsmanlike influence on the results.