FIFA on Sunday walked a tightrope with its decisions regarding Russia’s scheduled participation in the upcoming World Cup qualifying.
Despite three European countries — Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic — saying this weekend that they refuse to play Russia in the qualifiers, the soccer federation announced that it will not be banning Russia from competing in the playoffs to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
However, FIFA did make changes regarding Russia’s participation that it hopes can settle the dispute and added that banning the country is still an option. It decided, through a unanimous vote from the Bureau of FIFA Council, that the team can play using the “RFU” initialism of its football federation, the Russian Football Union.
“FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organizations to determine any additional measures or sanctions, including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly,” FIFA said in a statement.
The decision is similar to the one that the Court of Arbitration for Sport made before the 2021 Summer Olympics, allowing Russian athletes to compete in the Games as the “Russian Olympic Committee” rather than the country name.
The ruling Sunday afternoon also included a flag and anthem ban as well as the determination that the RFU squad can only play on neutral territory and not in Russia — something of vital importance to Sweden, Poland and Czech Republic — with no spectators
It’s unclear whether FIFA’s decision will quell the calls for Russia to be removed from the qualifiers, but Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza gave a pretty good hint on Twitter Sunday afternoon it won’t.
“Today’s FIFA decision is totally unacceptable,” he tweeted. “We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”
Russia had been scheduled to play Poland in Moscow on March 24, both countries having finished second in their respective qualifying groups. The winner of that game would host five days later the winner of a game between Sweden and the Czech Republic. The winner of that four-team mini-tournament would qualify for the World Cup in Qatar this November and December.
• Jacob Calvin Meyer can be reached at jmeyer@washingtontimes.com.
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