Sports are inherently political, and at the very least, sports can be a vehicle for political change.
That’s why Sunday’s announcement from soccer’s governing body, FIFA, was so disappointing.
Russia has faced global backlash since it launched an invasion on neighboring Ukraine last week. Russia has since been hit with crippling economic sanctions, but FIFA also had an opportunity to deal Russia a blow on the global stage.
It should have banned Russia from the World Cup.
Poland, Sweden and Czech Republic are all in a play-off group with Russia in UEFA qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. Russia was set to play Poland next month in Moscow with the winner to face either Sweden or the Czech Republic for a spot in Qatar. In response to Russia’s invasion, Czech, Swedish and Polish federations all said they would not play against Russia in any upcoming matches. They called on UEFA and FIFA to disqualify Russia and ban the team from the winter’s World Cup.
FIFA, through its inaction, is now completely boxed in on Russia: POL, then SWE, now CZE refuse to play Russia in World Cup playoff next month under any circumstances, at any site. pic.twitter.com/fgs04zlLYh
— Andrew Das (@AndrewDasNYT) February 27, 2022
FIFA, which awarded the 2018 World Cup to Russia amid a bribery scandal, decided instead to take minimal action against Russia.
