Poland will not play their World Cup playoff with Russia in Moscow on March 24 due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the president of the Polish soccer federation said yesterday, adding to a sports fallout from the attack.
The conflict has entered the third day since Russian President Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale invasion that has killed dozens of people, forced more than 50,000 to flee Ukraine in just 48 hours and sparked fears of a wider conflict in Europe.
“The time for talking is over. It is time to act. Due to the escalation of the Russian Federation’s aggression in Ukraine, the Polish team does not envisage playing the playoff against Russia,” Polish Football Association president Cezary Kulesz wrote, adding that it was the “only correct decision.”
Photo: AP
He said he would work with the Swedish and Czech federations — the winners of their match would have to play in Russia (on March 29) if the latter beat Poland — to present a unified position to FIFA.
The three federations issued a joint statement on Thursday demanding FIFA move the respective playoffs from Russia — who only four years ago hosted the World Cup finals.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino refused to make a decision regarding the playoffs in a news conference on Thursday.
“The first match is in a month, we hope of course that this situation will be resolved well before then,” Infantino said.
“We really want to believe that will be the case, but we can take a decision over that at any moment,” he added.
The UEFA on Friday stripped Saint Petersburg of hosting the Champions League final on May 28 and awarded it to Paris.
UEFA made no reference to its relationship with Gazprom, the Russian state energy giant that is one of their key sponsors.
UEFA also announced that Russian and Ukrainian clubs and national teams competing in international competitions must play home matches at neutral venues “until further notice.”
It was followed shortly afterward by Formula One announcing that they were canceling this year’s Russian Grand Prix due to be held in Sochi on March 25.
Pressure had grown on the organizers after reigning champion Max Verstappen and four-time champion Sebastian Vettel said they would not go to Sochi.
The invasion could also cost the Haas team dearly as Dmitry Mazepin, the father of their Russian driver Nikita, is the nonexecutive director of their title sponsor, Uralkali, and a close ally of Putin.
The US team decided not to sport the Russian colors of their sponsor in testing in Barcelona on Friday.
Team principal Guenther Steiner said a decision would be announced next week on the team’s collaboration with Uralkali.
Steiner said that 22-year-old Mazepin’s career with the team “must be resolved,” but that “it’s not all up to us.”
“There are governments involved and I have no power over that,” Steiner added.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also demanded action.
Angered by the breach of the “Olympic truce,” they urged all international federations to cancel any events they had coming up in Russia and Belarus.
The IOC — who were joined by the International Paralympic Committee in condemning the invasion — said the respective national flags of Russia and Belarus should not be flown at sports events.
The IOC said that that all 193 UN member states had agreed to a global truce beginning seven days before the start of the Winter Olympics in Beijing on Feb. 4 and ending seven days after the closing of the Paralympic Games on March 13.
Several Russian sports stars also voiced their opposition to the war.
Tennis world No. 7 Andrey Rublev scrawled “No war please” on a television camera after he reached the final of the Dubai ATP tournament on Friday.
Russian NHL ice hockey star Alex Ovechkin pleaded for peace: “Please no more war ... we must live in peace,” he said after training in Philadelphia.
His compatriot cyclist Pavel Sivakov, who rides for the elite Team Ineos Grenadiers, echoed Ovechkin’s sentiments: “I am totally against the war. The majority of Russians only want peace and never asked for this to happen.”
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