By Andrew Warshaw
March 17 – Ukraine’s government is back on the offensive over a potential boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia with organisers countering that such a move would be doomed to failure.
Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko has urged his country’s allies to consider snubbing the tournament if Russia does not pull all its troops out of his country’s territory.
Poroshenko told the German newspaper Bild he ideally prefers to keep football and politics separate but that this was not possible when one of Ukraine’s leading clubs Shakhtar Donetsk are being forced to play 1,200-km away in Lviv because Donetsk is occupied by pro-Russia separatists.
“I think there has to be discussion of a boycott of this World Cup. As long as there are Russian troops in Ukraine I think a World Cup in that country is unthinkable,” said Poroshenko.
Former FIFA vice president Vyacheslav Koloskov, who ran Russian football from 1992-2005, hit straight back by saying Poroshenko’s comments would fall on deaf ears, much like similar calls to boycott last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi over objections to Russia’s anti-gay propaganda laws.
“In terms of a boycott, unfortunately Poroshenko is not the first person to talk about this,” Koloskov told Reuters. “There were also attempts to boycott the Winter Olympics. No one was able to do anything then and I think exactly the same will happen with regards to the World Cup.
“[FIFA president] Sepp Blatter often says that politics is politics and football is football. Of course he will not allow a boycott to happen. In Ukraine they don’t know anymore what they are trying to achieve. First one thing, then another, then a third thing.
“They are not managing to achieve anything. We will host the 2018 World Cup and we will host it well.”
It would be no surprise if the situation in eastern Ukraine is discussed by FIFA’s executive committee this week and Koloskov warned that if Ukraine acted unilaterally, they would almost certainly be banned from the subsequent World Cup in Qatar.
“FIFA is very strict in this aspect,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will be risking a boycott given the likely consequences.”
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