KINGSTON, Jamaica— International sports lawyer, Dr Emir Crowne, believes the four Jamaican athletes wanting to switch allegiance to Türkiye have a strong case as their reasons are not “purely” financial, contrary to popular belief.

Dr Crowne noted that athletes are dissatisfied with the ruling local body, the Jamaica Athletics Administration Association (JAAA) and the Jamaican Government.

“Therefore, they should not be worried by the ‘purely mercenary reasons’ restriction which would allow World Athletics to block the transfers,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

The 2024 Olympic discus champion Roje Stona; Olympic long jump silver medallist Wayne Pinnock; Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell and the World Under-20 triple jump champion Jaydon Hibbert, are said to be making the switch to Turkeyi.

Their decisions are driven by lucrative financial offers including substantial signing bonuses, monthly stipends, and performance-based bonuses from Turkish authorities.

“When one looks at the World Athletics transfer of allegiance regulation, World Athletics says that an athlete should not switch countries for purely mercenary reasons and purely mercenary reasons mean purely financial reasons or for material reasons,” Dr Crowne explained.

But Dr Crowne pointed out that the athletes who have recently indicated a transfer of allegiance to another country or even historically, who have changed countries, have not done so for purely financial reasons.

“The Jamaican athletes in switching countries have all expressed some sort of concern about the lack of support from the JAAA or the government or the Olympic body and so on.

“They’ve all expressed concerns in terms of a lack of support, a lack of visibility, and so on from these national bodies in their home countries and that dissatisfaction, coupled with financial incentives and so on, is what led to the transfer of allegiance,” he added.

Dr Crowne, one of the region’s, if not the leading, experts in Intellectual Property and Sports Law, believes the complaints from the athletes should prompt the governing bodies to think twice about how they operate.

“So I think when one scrutinises the rule, it’s not that athletes necessarily need to look in the mirror. It may well be that bodies like the JAAA need to look into the mirror because it is the dissatisfaction with them and other similar bodies that factored into the equation to switch allegiances or to switch countries,” he reiterated.

The JAAA plans to address the issue of athletes switching national allegiance at the upcoming World Athletics Congress in Tokyo.

It is concerned about what it views as a trend of wealthy nations, particularly Türkiye, offering financial incentives to Jamaican athletes to change their representation. They will formally raise these concerns and present a written document at the Congress.

“Since World Athletics’ Transfer of Allegiance Regulations speak of switching for ‘purely mercenary reasons’ — in other words, for ‘purely’ financial reasons — I don’t think switching one’s country of allegiance from Jamaica to Türkiye runs afoul of those regulations,” he concluded.