By Andrew Warshaw
April 2 – A group of US senators is back on the attack over Russia’s staging of the 2018 World Cup and have written to FIFA urging it to consider stripping the country as hosts because of the occupation of Crimea.
In a letter released to the media Wednesday, 13 Democratic and Republican U.S. lawmakers said they “strongly encourage FIFA” to move the tournament.
“As you know, nearly a full year has passed since unmarked Russian troops and Russian-backed separatists began their dismemberment of Ukraine,” the Senators wrote.
“Allowing Russia to host the FIFA World Cup inappropriately bolsters the prestige of the (Russian President Vladimir) Putin regime at a time when it should be condemned and provides economic relief at a time when much of the international community is imposing economic sanctions,” the senators wrote to FIFA President Sepp Blatter.
Signatories included Robert Menendez, leading Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ron Johnson, the Republican chairman of the foreign relations panel’s Europe subcommittee, and former presidential candidate John McCain.
A copy of the letter was sent to the US Soccer federation with the senators calling on FIFA to convene a special extraordinary congress to vote on the issue.
This is not the first time US senators have called for a boycott whether because of Russian support for separatists in eastern Ukraine or last year’s Malaysian Airlines disaster.
Last month, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko also urged allies to consider a boycott unless Putin pulls his troops out but FIFA have consistently made it clear in a number of statements that moving the tournament for political reasons is not going to happen.
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