World Cup boycott would hit Putin hard
AN ENglANd boycott of this summer’s World Cup would prevent Vladimir Putin from getting away with a poison attack on British soil, a top authority on Russian security told Sportsmail last night.
dr Calder Walton of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of government said that the British government cannot allow Putin to escape reprisals over the attempted murder of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, in the way he did when Alexander litvinenko was murdered in london in 2006.
It took 10 years for an inquest to rule that litvinenko was probably killed on the Kremlin’s orders.
dr Walton said: ‘ There are grounds to say that much more must be done this time (if Putin is found to be behind the attack). A boycott is possibly thee kind of statement needed. ed. There’s a good argument nt (to say that England’s s participation in the World Cup) validates Putin and gives him credibility.’
dr Walton said a more potent course of action may be sanctions, - cutting off diplomatic og ties and freezing of Russian assets in the UKUK.
But the case for an England boycott has been supported by Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs select committee, and Chris Bryant, chairman of the allparty Parliamentary Russia group.
A boycott could see England banned from the 2022 Qatar World Cup. It would breach rules which state ‘all participating associations must play all of their matches until eliminated from the World Cup’. Article 6 of the same rules states a withdrawing nation could face sanctions ‘including the expulsion of the association concerned from subsequent FIFA competitions’.
Yet the tournament’s major sponsors have thrown more doubt on whether they will honour deals with FIFA in the aftermath of the Salisbury spy nerve agent attack.
Yesterday, Sportsmail revealed Mcdonald’s is considering reducing its presence in Russia this summer. Budweiser and Kia have now refused to confirm whether they will honour their deals. Budweiser are awaiting the outcome comeoutcome of a police investigation beforbefore making a decision. CCoca- Cola said their plplans for Russia ‘do not iinvolve offering consumers sconsumers the chance to attend matches’. Kia are reviewing whether RRussia is safe. ‘ No ttrips have been plplanned,’ said a spokesman. maspokesman. The other seven sponsponsors declined to commencomment. Alisher Aminov, president of Russia’s National Fund for the development of Football, told
Sportsmail he was astonished FIFA is allowing the nation to host the World Cup. He said there was not even a chance for Russians — millions of whom are impoverished — to decide if this was the way they wanted billions to be spent. Additional reporting: ADAM CRAFTON, KIERAN GILL, GEORGE CLARKE