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. Its decisions, taken unanimously by the bureau of its Council, require Russia to evolve under a neutral banner during the next competitions, under the name of “Russian Football Federation” without singing the Russian anthem or waving the Russian flag. As for the home games of the Russians, they will have to take place on neutral ground.
Insufficient for Poland or Sweden before the play-offs
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.
This “decision is completely unacceptable. We are not interested in participating in this match of appearances. The Polish national team will NOT PLAY against Russia, regardless of 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.
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, also raised the possibility of Russian exclusion, assuring that it would continue to “determine possible sanctions, including potential exclusion from competitions, which will be applied in the near future if the situation does not improve quickly”.
Russia excluded “if the situation does not improve”
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 Russia “launched in a daily interview The Parisian Noël Le Graët, also a member of the FIFA Council.
“All national teams 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 don’t think so, ”Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny said on Saturday at the microphone of the DAZN channel.
Its captain Robert Lewandowski, star of Bayern Munich, had already pointed out that “Russian footballers and fans are not responsible”, but that “we cannot pretend that nothing is happening”, on Twitter. Calls for a boycott from the world of sport vis-à-vis Russia, and sometimes Belarus, have multiplied in recent hours, as the battle for control of Kiev continues on Monday in a context marked by a further increase in pressure Westerners on Moscow.
Source: 20minutes
