After three days of silence, the International Football Federation, which organizes the World Cup, ended up joining the mobilization of the sports world.
Russia excluded from the 2022 World Cup? The hypothesis, put forward by the French Football Federation, is now mentioned by Fifa, but the first sanctions of the International Federation, Sunday, are considered insufficient by several nations refusing to face the Russians after the invasion of Ukraine. . After three days of silence, the International Football Federation, which organizes the World Cup, ended up joining the mobilization of the sports world on Sunday evening.
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Its decisions, taken unanimously by the office of its Council, impose on Russia to evolve under a neutral banner during the next competitions, under the name of “Russian Football Federationwith no Russian anthem sung or Russian flag waved. As for the home matches of the Russians, they will have to take place on neutral ground.
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These announcements, similar to those of the European Confederation (UEFA) for club competitions, remain below the expectations of certain football players, supporters of a pure and simple exclusion of Russia from the World Cup, a global event whose it organized the last edition, in 2018.
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That “decision is totally unacceptable. We are not interested in participating in this match of appearances. Poland national team WON’T PLAY against Russia no matter the name of the team“, immediately reacted on Twitter Cezary Kulesza, president of the Polish Federation. A position shared by the Czech and Swedish federations: both indicated that they maintained their refusal to face the Russians at the end of March.
Russia excluded “if the situation does not improve”
Poland must indeed challenge Russia on March 24 in the World Cup-2022 play-offs, like Sweden or the Czech Republic five days later if the Russians qualify. Fifa, which says it has “engaged in dialogue“With these three federations, she also mentioned the hypothesis of a Russian exclusion, assuring that she would continue to”determine possible sanctions, including a potential exclusion from competitions, which will be applied in the near future if the situation does not improve quickly“.
On Sunday, the president of the powerful French federation, that of the 2018 world champions, was one of the first to say he was in favor of this outcome. “The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral. I will certainly not oppose an exclusion of Russialaunched in an interview with the daily Le Parisien Noël Le Graët, also a member of the FIFA Council.
And in the evening, the English federation announced that it would boycott all the matches scheduled against Russia in “near future“. The International Federation finds itself again in discomfort: will it follow the French position, even if it means depriving the Russian players of a chance to play in the biggest football competition next November? Or will she go so far as to record the withdrawal of the Polish, Swedish and Czech selections for the March play-offs and therefore qualify Russia de facto?
Plenty of penalties
“All national selections should follow our example, so we will see if Fifa has the balls to give Russia a place in the World Cup by default. I do not think so“, had launched the goalkeeper of Poland, Wojciech Szczesny, on Saturday at the microphone of the DAZN channel. Its captain Robert Lewandowski, star of Bayern Munich, had already remarked that “Russian footballers and fans are not responsible“, but that “we can’t pretend that nothing is happening“, on Twitter.
Calls for a boycott from the sports world vis-à-vis Russia, and sometimes Belarus, have multiplied in recent hours, as the battle for control of Kiev continued on Sunday in a context marked by a further increase in pressure Westerners on Moscow. The crisis has also already had many repercussions in the ecosystem of professional sport, between canceled or moved competitions, Russian athletes declared persona non grata and sponsors called into question.
The prestigious final of the Champions League, scheduled for May 28, was quickly withdrawn in Saint Petersburg in favor of the Stade de France, near Paris, by UEFA, organizer of this major club competition. UEFA is also preparing to terminate its contract with the Russian gas giant Gazprom, majority owned by the Russian state, as confirmed to AFP on Saturday by a source familiar with the discussions.