Russia faces a host of sanctions and other penalties since President Vladimir Putin decided to send troops to Ukraine claiming to want to “demilitarize” and “denazify” the sovereign neighbour. Already, the UEFA Champions League final, which was supposed to take place in Moscow, has been shifted to Paris instead. With much of the football community shunning Russia, the question remains whether FIFA will remove the nation from the World Cup competition in Qatar, completely. 

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French football federation president Noel Le Graet told the Le Parisien daily that he was inclined to remove the nation from the tournament. Le Graet, who sits on the FIFA council and is close to president Gianni Infantino said, “The world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral”, AP reported.

Meanwhile, Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic have already refused to face Russia during the tail end of the play-offs for the FIFA World Cup 2022. 

The story so far

Currently, FIFA has ruled that Russia is not banned from the tournament. They’ve released a statement, saying, “FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organizations to determine any additional measures or sanctions including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly”. 

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Further, FIFA has banned playing the Russian anthem or waving the country’s flags ahead of the World Cup. It has also prohibited athletes from playing under the Russian banner, NBC reported. As per the media outlet, FIFA’s statement goes, “The member association representing Russia shall participate in any competition under the name ‘Football Union of Russia (RFU)’ and not ‘Russia’”. 

Unbowed, unbent, unbroken 

However, Poland has shunned what it believes to be a half-measure on FIFA’s part and has called this move “unacceptable”.

The Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza tweeted, “We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is”. 

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Russia was slated to face Poland and whoever won the match would go up against the winner of the Sweden versus Czech Republic fixture. However, the Czech Republic has also remained unshaken in their statement, expressing “The Czech FA executive committee, staff members and players of the national team agreed it’s not possible to play against the Russian national team in the current situation, not even on the neutral venue. We all want the war to end as soon as possible”. 

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The English football association has also joined in, saying that it will not play any matches against Russia in the near future. As per their tweet, this decision was taken “out of solidarity with Ukraine and to wholeheartedly condemn the atrocities being committed by the Russian leadership”.

Olive branch extended 

While FIFA continues to monitor the Russia-Ukraine conflict, diplomats of both countries are slated to meet on Monday, at the Ukraine-Belarus border. This move is expected to help find a peaceful resolution to the conflict. 

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However, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zeleneskyy has not put too much faith in the upcoming diplomatic talks but has agreed to let the teams try and work out the issues. Declaring his decision to remain in, and defend Ukraine, the president earlier refused the offer to hold diplomatic talks in Belarus itself, due to the nation’s alignment with Putin.