His silence grows heavier and heavier. Admittedly, there were indeed these few words from its president, Gianni Infantino, Thursday, February 24. “Fifa condemns the use of force by Russia in Ukraine, as well as the use of any type of violence to resolve conflicts,” he said at the time, referring to a “tragic and worrying” situation. Since ? Nothing. However, the war intensifies and the first sanctions fall, moreover.
Delocalized competitions, starting with the prestigious final of the Champions League, from Saint Petersburg to the Stade de France, Russian sportsmen declared persona non grata, sponsors called into question… Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic have announced that they would not face the Russians in the play-off of the 2022 World Cup. The Poles were to go to Moscow on March 24 to play the semi-final of the play-off, the winner of which must be opposed, five days later, to Sweden or the Republic Czech, also in Russia.
“Enough talk, it’s time to act,” Polish Football Federation president Cezary Kulesza wrote on Twitter.
Walking the talk is precisely what the International Football Federation is slow to do, while Fifa has indicated that it will continue to “monitor the situation and that developments in relation to World Cup qualifying matches will be communicated in due course.
A deafening silence
Since these statements, the pressure on the world football body has intensified. Many international federations, clubs, athletes or event organizing bodies have stepped up to the plate in recent days against Russia, organizer of the last World Cup, in 2018. This Saturday, February 26, the Swedish government called on the various federations to “boycott sporting ties” with the Russians “as long as the invasion of Ukraine lasts”.
According to information from Telegraph, the British government would also press for Russia to be excluded from the next World Cup, organized in Qatar, in the fall of 2022. In Le Parisien, Noël Le Graët, the president of the FFF, also says he is “leaning” , this Sunday, in favor of such a measure. The FA, the English Football Federation, she issued a press release to explain that England refuse to play against Russia, regardless of the competition concerned. Russia and England must notably compete in the Women’s Euro this summer.
Putting forward the argument of the temporality of the matches concerned by the boycott, which will only take place in March, Fifa had not yet reacted to these announcements on Saturday February 26. A reaction from the body, whose room for maneuver is shrinking as the days go by, cannot be long in coming. It is difficult to see, in fact, how his deafening silence could continue.