The World Athletics Nationality Review Panel refused 11 athletes' requests to transfer their allegiance to Turkiye. The panel said approving the applications would compromise eligibility rules and transfer of allegiance regulations.

The 11 applicants included five athletes from Kenya, four from Jamaica, Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili and Russian heptathlete Sophia Yakushina. World Athletics said its refusal to grant the requests does not prevent the 11 athletes from competing in one-day meetings or road races in a personal or club capacity, or from living and training in Turkiye.

The panel found that the applications formed part of a coordinated recruitment strategy led by the Turkiye government acting through a wholly-owned and financed government club to attract overseas athletes with lucrative contracts. The panel said the strategy aimed to facilitate transfers of allegiance and enable the athletes to represent Turkiye at future international competitions, including the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

World Athletics' transfer of allegiance regulations include criteria aimed at ensuring a genuine connection between the athlete and the country they represent and to protect the integrity, credibility and development of the sport globally. The governing body tightened those regulations in 2019. Sebastian Coe said some cases of young athletes switching allegiance were akin to human trafficking.

Turkiye's use of allegiance transfers has a longer history. At the 2016 European Championships, Turkiye's team included seven athletes from Kenya, two from Jamaica, one from Ethiopia, one from Cuba, one from Ukraine, one from South Africa and one from Azerbaijan. The following year, in 2017, Ramil Guliyev won the 200 metres gold medal at the World Championships representing Turkiye after switching allegiance from Azerbaijan.

Other countries have also used financial incentives to attract foreign athletes. Fares Ibrahim Hassouna, an Egypt-born weightlifter, won Qatar's first-ever Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021. Winfred Yavi, who switched allegiance from Kenya to Bahrain at the age of 15, has won Olympic and world gold medals in the 3,000-metre steeplechase.