Poland’s footballers around Robert Lewandowski don’t want to play against Russia’s national team, their association fully supports them. Scandinavian sports federations are breaking with Putin and his athletes. And the top German associations, DOSB and DFB, they also made it clear, uh, that – yes, what? That there is a minute’s silence at the game circle of the federal leagues? That you shouldn’t play sports in war zones for now?
Germany, four days after the start of the Russian war of aggression: arms are now being delivered to Ukraine after all, and the expulsion of Russian banks from the Swift agreement is now supported after all. But it seems like a quiet tradition that German representatives are last in matters of international importance when it comes to clear positions. A hesitant sport is part of an unfavorable tradition.
In this country it is once again the athletes themselves who lead the way. Your top representation “Athletes Germany” demands the complete exclusion of Russia and Belarus from all areas of sport. This move should not be confused with cheap demands by the DOSB or the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which practically fulfill themselves: to cancel all sporting events in Russia and Belarus for the time being.
In Germany, it is particularly difficult to break away from a narrative that has always been a lie and is now collapsing in the face of a raid with the risk of conflagration: that sport and politics should be separated. This is nonsense, and no one is less entitled to complain about it than the largest socio-political movement in the world: sport, especially the Olympics and football.
Fifa should ban Russia from the World Cup qualifiers – but so far there is nothing to suggest that
So now the leaders, IOC boss Thomas Bach and Fifa patron Gianni Infantino, are under the burning glass of the world public. Both represent positions that still insinuate the “apolitical” sport. Bach was recently deeply touched by the fact that Russia broke the Olympic ceasefire in Ukraine. And Infantino thinks Fifa can wait with sanctions, maybe things will calm down in the next few weeks. As if this war were an annoying disruptive fire against the sacred sports calendar. As if there were other, better dates for the start of the war – absurdly enough, the IOC even specifically named the end of the Olympic ceasefire, namely after the Paralympics.
For Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, the direct line to the Kremlin could now turn into a field post.
(Photo: Hassan Ammar/dpa)
Both sports leaders are closely intertwined with friend Vladimir. Back in 2014, Bach was foolish that his tete-a-tete with Putin at the end of the Sochi Games, when the invasion of Crimea was already being prepared, received so little attention. Which also applies to the careful handling of his IOC with Russia’s state doping.
And Infantino, the football kapo who is being tracked down by the Swiss judiciary and who just fled from Zurich to Qatar? He has a problem similar to that of the oligarchs in exile. The direct line to the Kremlin has apparently already turned into a field post for him. Those who are so close to the Kremlin that they are even planning a part of Fifa’s move to Moscow are fidgeting with Putin’s strings. This is the only way to explain why Infantino continues to act as if the war were an annoying snapshot – and worse: that other countries should now pay for his integrity problem. On Sunday evening he announced that Putin’s team could continue kicking, now just the abbreviation: RFU instead of Russia. The Russian flag and anthem should also no longer be used. What a huge sideshow he is opening up is apparently only unclear to him: Poland, Sweden and others will not be forced to do so. Will Putin’s men travel to the World Cup without a fight?
Infantino: He stands for the unscrupulous, ugly face of the football business. Another self-absorbed power man that the community should start to stop.