British Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, asked Russia to forfeit its right to stage 2018 World Cup finals following the destruction of the Malaysian Airline’s jet in Ukraine. The demand came as a surprise to Russian fans who have been eagerly waiting for this World Cup to be held in their country.
298 people including crew members had lost their lives on July 17 when Malaysian Flight MH17 was shot down by unknown inside eastern Ukraine.
Anti Russian Bloc such as US, UK and some other countries of Europe blamed Pro-Russian separatists to be behind this heinous act of terrorism. They claim that this separatists are backed by Russia and hence onus of the blame must be placed on Russia.
Earlier this week, some German politicians also said the World Cup should be moved from Russia, while FIFA rejected those sentiments by saying hosting the event there could be a “force for good”.
Dutch Football Association said it would soon hold a meeting to decide if its team will take part in the qualifying competition for the finals to be played in Russia. Around 200 Dutch nationals had lost their lives during that Malaysian flight tragedy.
Clegg told the British newspaper, which has recently published a series of articles alleging widespread corruption surrounding the award of the 2022 finals to Qatar, that threatening Russia by withdrawing the World Cup would be “a very potent political and symbolic sanction”.
“If there’s one thing that (President) Vladimir Putin cares about, as far as I can see, it’s his sense of status,” Clegg said. “Maybe reminding him that you can’t retain the same status in the world if you ignore the rest of the world, maybe that will have some effect on his thinking.”
Clegg said world leaders would look “so weak and so insincere” if the World Cup was allowed to go ahead in Russia.
“(Putin) can’t constantly push the patience of the international community beyond breaking point, destabilise a neighbouring country, protect these armed separatists in the east of Ukraine and still have the privilege and honour of receiving all the accolades in 2018 for being the host nation of the World Cup,” he added.
“You can’t have this — the beautiful game marred by the ugly aggression of Russia on the Russian-Ukrainian border.”
In a statement issued on Friday, FIFA said it “deplores any form of violence and will continue to use its tournaments to promote dialogue, understanding and peace among peoples” and that “we have seen that the FIFA World Cup can be a force for good and FIFA believes this will be the case for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia”.
Clegg even went on to say that Russia should not host a Formula One Grand Prix in October but F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has said it will go ahead as planned.
However, independent political and sports analysts say that sports and politics must be free from each other. Also, there has been no concrete proof to show that pro-Russian separatists were involved in this crime. There is no concrete proof to prove this.
Separatists from eastern Ukraine have already denied having any part in shooting down this plane.
Reuters contributed to this story.
