Scotland V Basque Federation

[Derek Howie]

Robin, The Basque Federation does not have a website and they have offered to pay costs.

Have they offered to pay all costs or will part of it, eg flights, be coming out of your international budget? Are you just going by the ambiguous email posted earlier or did you establish exactly what it would cost before accepting?

Derek, I argue that we are staying out of politics by only playing chess. You could argue that sending teams to Olympiads in Russia, the Philippines, Norway and to Bilbao for the club cup are all political in some way, but then we would never play any international matches if we took that line.

It's hardly the same. You are being disingenuous trying to imply that sending a team to the Olympiad has the same political ramifications as sending a team to play a region in Spain, when the invitation has clearly been sent for political purposes.

I wonder if you would be in such a rush to accept the invitation if it had come from Galicia. Then again there were not any Galicia flags being waved at the "Yes" rallies prior to the referendum.

Chess Scotland should not allow itself to be used as a pawn in the internal politics of another country and the invitation should be politely refused.