Yekaterinburg will no longer host SportAccord this year ©Getty Images

This year’s SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit in Yekaterinburg, Russia has been cancelled.

The decision comes after Russia invaded Ukraine, leading to fierce fighting and tough economic sanctions being placed on Russia in response.

Dozens of sporting events in Russia have already been cancelled, with the International Olympic Committee calling on International Federations to strip the nation of all events which have not already been moved.

In a statement SportAccord President Ivo Ferriani said: "The SportAccord Executive Committee met today and unanimously decided to cancel the SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit."

SportAccord organisers had told insidethegames on Tuesday (February 22) that they were "looking forward to welcoming the international sport community to Russia."

The previous edition of SportAccord took place on the Gold Coast in Australia in 2019 ©SportAccord
The previous edition of SportAccord took place on the Gold Coast in Australia in 2019 ©SportAccord

However, with travel to Russia set to be severely restricted it would have been impossible for the majority of delegates to attend.

The summit was due to have taken place between May 15 and 20.

The SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit has not been held since 2019, when Australia's Gold Coast was the destination.

Chinese capital Beijing and then Olympic capital Lausanne in Switzerland had been due to stage the 2020 edition, but the pandemic led to it being cancelled altogether.

Yekaterinburg was first supposed to host the summit in May 2021, before it was rescheduled to November 2021, and then again to May 2022, but now it will not take place at all.