By Andrew Warshaw
October 31 – FIFA have been forced to apologise for a politically embarrassing gaffe after a video launching the logo for the 2018 World Cup in Russia displayed the disputed Crimean peninsula as being part of Russian territory.
An introductory promotional film during the presentation of the logo included a brief image following a clip from Germany’s 1-0 win over Argentina in this year’s World Cup final in Brazil.
It was apparently commissioned by Russia’s World Cup organising committee from a ”local creative agency” but the original video has now been removed and replaced with an edited version.
FIFA is likely to take a dim view of the Crimea reference and made it clear that the agency concerned bore responsibility.
“Unfortunately the map of Russia selected and used during the projection by the local service provider escaped our attention and the short sequence in question has been removed,” a FIFA statement said.
Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula in March amid global condemnation while there is still considerable political unrest in eastern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian federation claims that three of its clubs have been ‘kidnapped’ but Russia insists they are new clubs that have nothing to do with the old entities.
Since being published the video has been seen 9,000 times and once again highlights Russia’s position with regard to Ukraine at a time when both FIFA and UEFA are trying to come up with a solution over the status of Crimea’s clubs.
Ironically, the video was released in the same week that FIFA president Sepp Blatter was visiting to Moscow for the ceremony to launch the 2018 logo.
Ukrainian commentators were distinctly unhappy.
Markiyan Lubkivskiy, who directed Ukraine’s preparations to host Euro 2012 and is now an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian security services, suggested the video could aid the cause of pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
”Lawyers, get ready,” he wrote on line. ”If we don’t react toughly to things like this, then soon nothing will be left of us.”
Pavlo Ternovy, press secretary of Football Federation of Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post it won’t make an official statement until it gets a explanation from FIFA.
“We shall take action once we understand the motivation for doing this – whether it is a mistake, a small inaccuracy or principled step taken by FIFA,” he said though it was unclear whether his remarks came before or after FIFA’s statement.
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