By Andrew Warshaw
May 30 – The growing military crisis in Ukraine has led to further attempts to politicise the 2018 World Cup in Russia with Ukrainian political figures and a Canada-based pressure group calling on FIFA to strip the country of hosting rights. The demands will fall on deaf ears at FIFA as the governing body has repeatedly held the line that politics and football must remain separate.
Last week, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU, Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, said that as a result of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and incursions into eastern Ukraine, sanctions should include “withdrawing the right from the Russian Federation” to stage the World Cup.
“In my view, it is feasible because Russia, as a member of [world football’s governing body] FIFA, should respect certain values and certain obligations,” he said.
Such a step would hurt the Russian leadership “because for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin this is a huge political … and financial project,” he said.
Two U.S. senators, Dan Coats and Mark Kirk, wrote to FIFA in March asking it to convene an emergency session to consider suspending Russia’s membership and stripping it of hosting rights.
In response deputies from the Russian State Duma, from the United Russia and Fair Russia parties, asked for FIFA to revoke the membership of the USA and to disqualify the US team from the 2014 World Cup. The letter fromAleksandr Sidyakin and Mikhail Markelov cited the USA’s aggressive actions against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya as well as their attempts to encroach on Syria, as the reasons for asking for the US to be banned.
FIFA has responded to the latest Ukranian political demands that only a violation of its statutes could lead to a country’s expulsion, the same reason being used to counter the relentless pressure being brought to bear on Qatar which has faced countless unproven allegations of wrongdoing in the build-up to the 2010 ballot.
United with Ukraine, an international human rights organisation based in Ottawa, is the latest organisation to mobilise a campaign and opening up a new front by calling for a boycott of World Cup partners, in particular Budweiser and Anheuser-Busch and, in a video, urging FIFA to re-assign the 2018 tournament.
“The corporate mantra of Anheuser-Busch InBev is “Bringing People Together for a Better World” which goes completely against affiliating itself with Russia’s hosting of the World Cup and Vladimir Putin’s army of war mongers,” said Eugene Melnyk, Chairman of the Campaign Advisory Committee for United with Ukraine.
“Major international sporting events such as the Olympics or FIFA’s World Cup serve as powerful forces of global unity and peace, not conflict and war. To allow Russia to host the World Cup would fundamentally undermine the spirit of international sport and the stated core principles of every corporate sponsor who so far has chosen to align itself with such an irresponsible decision. We are asking FIFA’s major partners to take a firm principled stand and demand FIFA immediately re-assign the 2018 World Cup to a more deserving nation.”
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