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Withdrawal of Tour du Faso from UCI calendar: Burkina “sovereignly” invites whoever it wants, Bassolma Bazié

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Minister of State Bassolma Bazié affirmed on Sunday that Burkina sovereignly invites whoever it wants, in response to the withdrawal of the Tour du Faso from the calendar of the Cycling Union (UCI), due to the participation of a Russian team in the competition.

“Sovereignty is in all areas: economic, social, sporting, political, military. So from this point of view, we have our destiny in our hands. Whoever comes must respect our particularities,” indicated Sunday in Koudougou, Bassolma Bazié.

The Burkinabe Minister of State for the Civil Service was reacting to the decision taken the day before by the UCI to withdraw the Tour du Faso from its calendar, in protest against the participation of the CSK Moscow cycling team.

“Those who are still sleeping (must) wake up. It is not up to a country to tell us who we should invite, who should not be invited, who should participate or not. The term is Tour du Faso. It is not Tour of Europe, nor Tour of the United States. It is the Tour du Faso, it is first and fo
remost Burkina Faso with all its friends,” he insisted.

For the Minister of State, “those who withdrew the label, it is not the Burkinabe people who are in conflict with their people. It is they themselves who like to say that politics should not be invited into the world of sports. But if someone makes political calculations by saying that he is withdrawing his label, in any case, we are standing and the Tour is going well,” added Bassolma Bazié.

The Minister of State could not have been clearer: “Anyone who wants to come must respect our rules. We would like to congratulate all the countries, reiterate our gratitude to them and invite all our brothers and sisters, wherever the Tour will pass through the territory, to mobilize and give them a warm welcome.”

For one less label, “more labels have come forward and we would like to congratulate them and tell them of our willingness to welcome them. Any people who want to join the Burkinabe people are welcome,” he said.

“We are not doing label stuffing. We ar
e doing label stuffing that magnify humanism. That is what counts. Even if there was only one label to magnify the resilience of the Burkinabe people, we consider that the objective has been achieved,” argued the minister.

Minister Bazié welcomed the stage victory of the Russian Anton Popov, recalling that in 1987, the Koudougou stage was also won by a Russian and that in 2024, another Russian won the finish.

Source: Burkina Information Agency