As soon as the announcement of the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, the sporting world mobilized. On an individual basis first, through the words of Ukrainian and even Russian athletes, such as tennis player Andrey Rublev. Or collective, through the volleyball, ski or automobile federations, which have given up all the competitions planned on Russian soil, such as the Skicross World Cup event or the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sochi.
→ FOLLOW OUR LIVE. War in Ukraine: ongoing talks, new sanctions against Russia
In Europe, football did not drag on, with UEFA’s very quick decision to move the Champions League final, scheduled for Saint Petersburg, to the Stade de France. The European football governing body has also announced that it is reconsidering its contract with the Russian company Gazprom, one of its main sponsors.
But Fifa procrastinated for several days before announcing its position, Sunday February 27 at the start of the evening: all the matches of the Russian team scheduled on its territory must take place on neutral ground, without anthem or flag. Starting with the qualifying matches for the 2022 World Cup, which the Russian team was to play at the end of March against Poland, a country bordering Ukraine, then against Sweden or the Czech Republic (1).
Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic refuse to play
Fifa has taken care to protect the future by indicating in a press release that it reserves the right to take “any additional measures or sanctions, including possible exclusion from competitions, which will be applied in the near future if the situation does not improve quickly”. A welcome precaution in view of the reactions of the main interested parties, the Swedish and Czech federations having immediately declared that the position of Fifa did not change anything in their decision not to play against Russia.
At the risk of a package leading to disqualification for the World Cup? “It already happened in 1973, when the USSR refused to play a qualifying match against Chile, where President Allende had just been overthrown. The Soviet Union had lost its match and could not play the 1974 World Cup in Germany. explains historian Paul Dietschy, author in 2010 of The history of football (Ed. Perrin).
Can we imagine an equivalent scenario, namely a qualification on the green carpet of Russia after the withdrawal of its opponents? “In principle, yes, in practice, it is unlikely,” continues Paul Dietschy. Fifa’s statutes prohibit it from taking unilateral sanctions for political reasons, except in the event of a breach of its rules related to discrimination or racism, which had allowed it to ban South Africa from all competition because of apartheid.
“Countries have been deprived of a match due to a war situation on their soil, which is not the case with Russia, but never has a state been banned for political reasons”, continues Paul Dietschy. When Germany invaded Austria in 1938, they participated in the World Cup a few weeks later.
Noël Le Graët leans for a boycott of Russia
Will the Russian invasion usher in a new chapter in sports diplomacy? If all the federations of powerful Europe join forces to demand a boycott of the Russian team, it is hard to see how Fifa could resist. The European selections weigh heavily economically and sportingly in the 2022 World Cup, organized at the end of the year in a country, Qatar, which largely supports European football.
The voice of UEFA, chaired by Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin, is very much heard within FIFA. And the European organization could demand a Yugoslav scenario in 1992: Yugoslavia, caught in the Balkan war, had been disqualified from the Euro by UEFA (not by Fifa), which had led to the repechage of the Denmark… who had won the trophy in stride.
→ THE FACTS. War in Ukraine: Russia in the dock at the United Nations General Assembly
To date, two voices foreign to those of countries concerned by scheduled matches with Russia have been raised in the concert of the federations, those of England and France. Questioned by our colleague The Parisianthe president of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, said “Leaning for an exclusion of Russia for the next World Cup”.
“This is my first momentum. Usually, I believe that sport is there to reconcile people. But this is going much too far. And the world of sport, and in particular football, cannot remain neutral. I will certainly not oppose an exclusion of Russia”, said the top French football official.
