Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the International Football Association (FIFA) to give a speech in the name of world peace before Sunday's final of the World Cup in Qatar. However, FIFA President Gianni Infantino rejected the Ukrainian president's request, saying that the federation does not want to allow politics to mix with sports.
According to press reports, Zelensky was disappointed to learn of FIFA's decision.
"We believed that FIFA wanted to use its platforms for the benefit of the public good," CNN reported of Zelensky's reaction. As usual, the Ukrainian president wanted to check in on the Qatari fans in a video message on Sunday, before the World Cup final between Argentina and France, which starts at 4 p.m.
Before the World Cup in Qatar, FIFA repeatedly declared that it would do everything possible to keep political messages away from the football field.
In the spirit of this, for example, the goalkeeper of the German national team, Manuel Neuer, was forbidden to wear a rainbow colored captain's armband in Qatar.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino explained in a press conference on Friday that football is for everyone and the association has stopped certain "political campaigns" to keep it that way.
"We are a global organization and we do not discriminate against anyone," Infantino said.
Source: hirado.hu
2022 plus:
They could say that FIFA's decision is correct, since politics has nothing to do with sports. The only problem with the current decision is that all of this happened suddenly in Qatar. Obviously with a well-considered intention, because before it was no problem that, for example, Neuer wore a rainbow-colored captain's armband in Budapest, that in Munich the stadium got rainbow-colored lighting when our national team played there, and let's not even talk about kneeling.
