PlaytheGame: The new Taliban regime in Afghanistan has held power over the country’s sports sector since August 2021. But even though the regime almost immediately violated the Olympic Charter by declaring a ban on women’s sport, the Taliban-controlled National Olympic Committee of Afghanistan is still funded by money from the IOC’s Olympic Solidarity programme. According to the former Afghan judoka, Friba Rezayee, the first ever female Olympian from Afghanistan, an email correspondence earlier this year between the IOC and the NOC confirmed the transfer of 56,000 USD from the Olympic Solidarity programme to the Taliban-controlled committee in Kabul. But the money never seemed to reach the Afghan athletes they were meant for. Click here to read more (external link).