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 matches of the Russians, they will have to take place on neutral ground.
These announcements, similar to those of the European Confederation (UEFA) for club competitions, remain below the expectations of certain football players, supporters of an outright exclusion of Russia from the World Cup, a global event. of which it organized the last edition, in 2018.
This “decision is completely unacceptable. We are not interested in participating in this match of appearances. The national team of Poland will NOT PLAY against Russia, regardless of the name of the team”, reacted immediately on Twitter Cezary Kulesza, President of the Polish Federation.
Russia excluded “if the situation does not improve”
Poland must indeed face Russia on March 24 in the play-offs of the World Cup-2022, like Sweden or the Czech Republic five days later if the Russians qualify.
Fifa, which says it has “engaged in dialogue” with the Polish, Swedish and Czech Federations, also raised the possibility of Russian exclusion, assuring that it would continue to “determine possible sanctions, including potential exclusion competitions, which will be applied in the near future if the situation does not improve soon”.
On Sunday, the president of the powerful French federation, that of the 2018 world champions, had already said he was in favor of this outcome.
“The world of sport, and in particular of football, cannot remain neutral. I will certainly not oppose the exclusion of Russia” launched in an interview with the daily newspaper Le Parisien Noël Le Graët, also a member of the Council of FIFA.
And in the evening, the English federation announced that it would boycott all matches scheduled against Russia in “the 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 teams should follow our example, so that 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 remarked 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 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 break 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.