Russia out of Qatar World Cup
It has always been considered out of place to mix politics and sport, but never before in Europe has there been an aggression against a civilian population like the one Vladimir Putin is carrying out against the Ukrainian population.
The Russia-Poland match was scheduled for the 24th of next month to determine one of the three places in the European zone that are still to be allocated.
In addition to this match, Italy-Macedonia, Portugal-Turkey, Scotland-Ukraine, Sweden-Czech Republic and Wales-Austria will be played.
Given Putin's regime, the Russian population may be uninformed or intentionally informed.
In any case, the Russian president's motives do not justify the killing of a single person, nor the dropping of heavy weaponry on defenceless populations.
As happens on many occasions, sport serves to inform about what is happening in different parts of the world.
Nowadays, great sportsmen such as Rafa Nadal, Lebron James, Lewis Hamilton, Lionel Messi and others are known worldwide and any gesture they make is echoed in the media all over the world.
Historically it also happened with Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, Nadia Comaneci, Maradona, Joe di Maggio or Usain Bolt to name a few.
And while we are on the subject of Russia, who doesn't remember Lev Yashin, known as the black spider, goalkeeper of Dynamo Moscow who was an Olympic champion. In 1963 he achieved his greatest achievement by being the only European goalkeeper to win the Ballon d'Or.
Or Anatoli Karpov, an excellent chess player who learned to play at the age of 5 and in 1966, at the age of 15, won the title of Soviet Master.
Or on the aggrieved side, in Ukraine, Sergei Bubka, Ukrainian athlete who broke his own world record more than 30 times in the pole vault. He won countless medals at various Olympic Games.
The biggest impact of world sport is at the Olympic Games and the football World Cups.
And the closest we have is the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
Perhaps a large part of the Russian population thinks that if the majority of the countries of Europe and the world are joining forces to boycott Russia, it will be for a reason and they will want to investigate and get to know their president better. Know what they are doing to the Ukrainian population, which is not to blame for the decisions of a handful of politicians on one side or the other.
The first country to join the boycott was Poland, which has to play Russia in the play-off for the World Cup. The Czech Republic and Sweden also announced it.
In the last few hours, England, Wales and Denmark have joined them.
FIFA's decision seems imminent, as it could not be otherwise. The situation is critical, every day people are dying in high numbers because of Russia's aggressions against Ukraine.
The decision of the European national teams is firm. They will not play against the Russian team anywhere, neither in Russia nor in any neutral country.
It is easy for FIFA. Moreover, they do not have the political constraints that the EUFA has with Ceferin and his support for Qatar and PSG.
Football is the first sport and many more will follow.
FIFA statement:
Following the initial decisions taken by the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, decisions which provided for further measures to be taken, FIFA and UEFA have jointly decided that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, will be suspended from participating in FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.
These decisions were taken by the FIFA Council Bureau and the UEFA Executive Committee respectively, the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters. Football is fully united here and in total solidarity with all those affected in Ukraine. Both presidents hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and quickly so that football can once again be a vector of unity and peace among people.
