Davidoff throws the towel! A press release issued on 9th August announces that "Swiss Indoors AG, organizer of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors, and the Oettinger Davidoff Group, its sponsor, have reached a joint decision to allow the title sponsorship of the event to expire after this year’s tournament."

This is a great victory for OxyRomandie, and a fantastic reward for the joint efforts deployed over the last three years by our association and our sister organizations in France, CNCT (Comité national contre le tabagisme), and in the United Kingdom, ASH UK, and ASH Scotland. Although Mr. Brennwald, the owner and president of the Basel tournament, and his tobacco sponsor will not admit it, the decision of ATP that “the tournament would no longer be marketed in Europe under its previous name due to advertising restrictions in the tobacco industry” results directly from the pressure we collectively put on the world tennis organization (based in the UK) and from the legal procedures launched in France against TV broadcasters (Eurosport, Canal+) and the sponsors of the tournament.

As direct consequence of the Davidoff/UNESCO incident that took place in 2009, the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) requests "a review of the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador Programme to ensure that no [tobacco] industry-sponsored person represents the United Nations." In 2009, opera singer Monserrat Caballé, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, accepted a cheque from the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in spite of the clear instructions from the Director General of UNESCO that such tobacco money be refused (see our article UNESCO flatly rejects donation from Davidoff Swiss Indoors). The action point submitted to the 53 members of ECOSOC who meet this month in New York further reminds them that "Goodwill Ambassadors and Messengers of Peace, are expected to be 'persons of integrity who demonstrate a strong desire to help mobilize public interest in, and support for, the purposes and principles of the United Nations'". This clearly suggests that such expectation was not met in the case of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors donation to Ms. Caballé.

In brief, this is yet another Basel gaffe, which will no doubt create great embarrassment for Swiss diplomacy and which doesn't contribute to project a good international image of our country. This shows that the Davidoff Swiss Indoors is becoming, with each passing day, more and more shameful for Basel and for Swiss sport. It's high time that an end be put to this ludicrous and highly damaging situation. Are you listening, Mr. Brennwald?