We had been waiting for the reaction of the International Football Federation (Fifa) for several days and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. And it wasn’t necessarily worth the wait. Once once more, Fifa refused the courage of a decision that many countries, starting with France, demanded as its president Noël Le Graët explained in our columns. This Sunday, Fifa imposed on Russia to play its matches under a neutral banner and to play its home matches outside its territory, following the invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian anthem and flag will also be banned from international competitions, announced FIFA, which reserves the right to take “additional sanctions, including potential exclusion from competitions”, while the exclusion of Russians from the World Cup has been mentioned in recent hours, in particular by the French Federation.
To participate in international competitions, in particular in the World Cup-2022 play-offs scheduled for the end of March, Russia will have to do so under the name of the “Russian Football Federation” (RFU), specifies the body led by Gianni Infantino.
These decisions, awaited by the sports world for several days, were taken “unanimously” by the bureau of the Council of Fifa, specifies the body.
A decision that will not fail to be stigmatized as very weak. It allows the Russians to continue dreaming of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The latter must play a first play-off match once morest Poland on March 24 and then possibly face the winner of Sweden Czech Republic four days later if they want to compost their ticket for Qatar.
The half-measure taken by Fifa, which gives the impression of taking a decision when it is useless on the merits, should not calm the anger of the Polish, Swedish and Czech federations which have announced that they refused purely and simply to face Russia at the end of March. Fifa, she explains, “took good note” of these positions and “engaged in dialogue” with the federations concerned, with the aim of “finding appropriate and acceptable solutions”.
In the current state, it nevertheless seems very complicated to Gianni Infantino, the boss of Fifa, to believe that his half-measure will satisfy the world of sport and world public opinion.
