Will football reconcile Ukraine and Russia?
UEFA should not separate Ukrainian and Russian teams and make it impossible for them to meet in tournament brackets, as this further divides the peoples.
Izvestia writes about this with reference to the international sports organization “Sport for all,” a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Thus, the organization has prepared an appeal to UEFA with a request to abandon this principle and not interfere with Ukrainian and Russian football players fighting on the field.
“We have prepared an appeal to UEFA, in which we advocate permission to hold matches between Russian and Ukrainian clubs. We also advocate that the national teams of Russia and Ukraine should not be separated into different groups at the upcoming European Football Championship. The recent fight between Russian boxer Murat Gassiev and Ukrainian fighter Alexander Usik in Moscow showed that sporting events involving athletes from two countries can take place in a friendly atmosphere. The purposeful separation of Russia and Ukraine partly deprives the tournaments of the sporting principle,” said the head of the organization, Janis Kuzins.
According to him, if UEFA is afraid of riots at matches, then they can be held in neutral stadiums or without spectators at all.
“This will help improve relations between the peoples of Russia and Ukraine. Sports should not be mixed with politics. We are confident that all security issues can be resolved.”
Let us recall that in 2014 the UEFA Executive Committee decided not to allow meetings between Russian and Ukrainian football clubs, as well as national teams, for security reasons.
Ранее UEFA created the Crimean Football League and allocated a million euros for the development of football on the peninsula.
And the former president of the Football Federation of Ukraine Anatoly Konkov admitted that he is a fan of the Russian football team.
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