Sports and Politics
Why did it take global outrage for FIFA and UEFA to ban Russia?
The Russian war in Ukraine has started something extraordinary.
It really has.
The images beamed around the world stirred something in millions of people and they reacted in the only way they knew: demonstrating solidarity with Ukraine. And this great sense of solidarity, rather interestingly, has been near universal; cutting across disparate races, cultures, religions and age groups.
And football (known in America as soccer), the sport loved by billions across the globe, picked up the gauntlet and simply ran with it.
In football stadiums across the United Kingdom and Europe, you had football teams literally falling over themselves to express sympathy with the Ukrainians, over their immense difficulties.
Given the current politically charged climate, It wasn’t long before national football teams announced that they weren’t going to play Russia in the upcoming world cup qualifiers. Sweden, Portugal, Scotland and Ireland were swift in taking sides. The likes of England later followed suit.
But UEFA and FIFA, the continental and World footballing bodies were stridently silent about the Russian war and very slow in condemning Russian aggression.