Lewandowski leads call to kick Russia out of World Cup
PRESSURE is mounting on
FIFA to kick Russia out of the World Cup play-offs after the Polish and Swedish football associations said they would refuse to play.
Robert Lewandowski, Poland’s all-time record scorer, backed his country’s decision to withdraw from their match against Russia on March 24 over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The president of the Polish FA, Cezary Kulesza, said they would not play the semi-final ‘in light of the escalation of the Russian Federation’s aggression against Ukraine … This is the only right decision’.
If the Russia-Poland match had gone ahead, the winners would have played either Sweden or the Czech Republic in one of the three play-off finals to fill the last three European berths at Qatar 2022. Sweden’s FA followed Poland in
saying they would refuse to play Russia, handing FIFA a massive headache. They will either have to kick Russia out, or award them a bye and face international fury for siding with warmongering Putin.
FIFA are already accused of pandering to Russia, not least because of president Gianni Infantino’s close relationship with him. Infantino has gushed with personal praise for Putin in the past, and accepted a Russian
‘Order of Friendship’ from him in 2019, a year after Russia staged what Infantino described as ‘the best World Cup ever’ in 2018.
FIFA were conspicuously silent last night in response to the Polish and Swedish FA’s statements.
The Scottish FA remain in talks with UEFA over their play-off semi-final with Ukraine scheduled for the same day, with Poland also having offered assistance to the Ukrainians in preparing for the tie.
However, with the domestic league — where the bulk of Oleksandr Petrakov’s Ukraine squad ply their trade — now on an enforced shutdown, there remains very real doubt as to whether they will be able to fulfil the fixture.
Lewandowski (right) was among many Polish footballers to support his FA’s stance. ‘I can’t imagine playing a match with the Russian national team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues,’ said the Bayern Munich striker. ‘Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this but we can’t pretend nothing is happening.’
Former Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, now at Juventus, whose wife was born in Ukraine, said: ‘I refuse to play against players who choose to represent the values and principles of Russia. I refuse to take part in a sporting event that legitimates the actions of the Russian government.’
Two of the three Ukrainian players in the Premier League, Everton’s Vitaliy Mykolenko and Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko, embraced in the warm-up before their teams met at Goodison last night, to a standing ovation from all sides. Everton dropped their usual walk-out airraid sound effects and instead played The Hollies’ classic He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.
At Old Trafford, the managers and players of Manchester United and Watford grouped together before kick-off and held up a sign saying ‘Peace’ in multiple languages. At the day’s early match between Leeds and Tottenham at Elland Road, blue and yellow hearts were displayed on the advertising hoardings with the word Ukraine next to them.
Today’s Carabao Cup final between Liverpool and Chelsea is expected to see further gestures of solidarity, and the match will have increased policing and security in case any protests at Russia escalate beyond the peaceful. Chelsea’s Russian owner, Roman Abramovich, last night revealed he was handing the ‘stewardship and care of Chelsea FC’ to the trustees of the club’s charitable foundation. The government meanwhile cancelled visas for the Belarus men’s basketball team yesterday, for a match today in Newcastle, over their nation’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The global governing bodies of all Olympic sports have effectively been ordered by the International Olympic Committee executive board to cancel or relocate any events currently scheduled to take place on Russian soil.