Russia's Ban

Why the Russian national and club ban from FIFA & UEFA is bad for the political climate of world football

  On the 28th of Februrary, UEFA announced that Russian teams, both national and club, will be banned from competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine. While this has been hailed internationally, and I agree on the principal, I call into question FIFA’s decision to get involved in geopolitics. I am not calling out their decision to ban Russia, to be clear, but rather their refusal to ban other nations for similar events.

  Many nations in FIFA’s lived history (the organisation was founded in 1904) such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Syria, Israel, Iran, Spain, Germany, Chile, even Russia in the past, have committed attrocious acts similar to, if not worse than, what the invasion of Ukraine has been while Football teams have not been banned from playing. I ask, why now? It is almost rhetorical. I know it is because the countries are European and seen, as many western pundits have let slip, as “civilised.” I would almost support no action at all in this senario, because it would be equal treatment of peoples, but while Qatar abuses human rights, they get to host a World Cup, and while Saudi Arabia commits war crimes in Yemen they get to keep their close ties to FIFA. Russian money can’t buy their way out of their attrocities because FIFA and the western world sees the victims as actual people.

  Outside of FIFA events, the calls and banning of Russian Athletes is ridiculous. The Russian people are not entirely to blame for Russian Government’s actions. All of this kicked off with the International Olympic Comittee disbanding the Russian Olympic Comittee for the Paralympics, and calling for other sports to do the same. The athletes will be banned entirely from IOC events, not even allowed to compete under the Olympic flag. The removal of all things “Russian,” regardless of their connection to the Russian Government, should be called what it is: Xenophobia. It is nothing short of a call back to cold war era hatred of Russians and general Slavs by the west, and outside of places with national idenifiers, like sports, average people who aren’t even Russian will be caught in the crossfire.

  It is also xenophobia where countries that are not ethnically European do not get punished for their crimes, or no one is punished for crimes against them. Israel is a prime example of this, with no prevention of them in football after invading several neighbours unprovoked, and still illegally occupying several countries. Even when sanctions are placed, such as Iran’s home game ban for their invasion of Iraq in the 80s, they are rarely as extreme as banning from world cup. Even during the Gulf War, while Iraq was banned from the Asian Games in after the start of the war until 1995, they were allowed to compete in the 1993 AFC World Cup Qualifiers.

  Why is it allowed for FIFA and UEFA to buddy up with and refuse to sanction clubs like Beitar Jerusalem which in 2022 still bars the signing of Arab players and allows its fans to be racist to Arabs, why has racism from Zenit St Petersburg and Shaktar Dontesk been ignored? This is, more than anything, a ploy. Personally, I think that FIFA was looking to sweep their recent corruption scandals underneath the rug and found the perfect PR job to do it.

  This also links to the issue of “political messages in football.” Many leagues, including those run by FIFA and UEFA explicitly ban political messages from teams and players, but have not spoken up against messages about Ukraine during matches. Again, I must stress I am not speaking out against the support of Ukraine in football, but rather the hypocrisy of how FIFA, UEFA, and the European leagues, generally “white” European organisationsw, reacts to European issues compared to countries considered “brown.”

  Many clubs, from Celtic to Barcelona, have had issues for fans and players supporting issues seen as left wing or from outside of Europe, even sanctioned policies and shows of support for them have faced issues with the governing bodies of football when the involve topics such as Racism and LGBT rights, topics FIFA and UEFA have official positions on. But no issues, unsurprisingly, with shows of support for Ukraine, other than the occasional yellow card shown to players for taking off their numbered jersey. Some have said this lifts the veil that some people have been trying to lay, that football and politics can’t be separated. I call bunk. That “veil” is still there, just for issues the western establishment don’t care for. The refusal to call this what it is – hypocrisy – just because Ukraine is something we must “unilaterally support” seemingly without any critical thought, is wrong. Let the protests happen but let all of the protests happen. Don’t pick and choose what messages you want displayed. Either play the full political game or don’t at all. You aren’t allowed to dabble