Russia's war against Ukraine, rampant corruption and bribery in the world soccer governing body FIFA, Russia's anti-gay laws, and unchecked racism at matches have all been recognized in calls for the 2018 World Cup to be boycotted or relocated away from Russia. But with construction continuing apace in the 11 Russian host cities and qualifying groups announced this weekend, is it already too late for these appeals to have any effect?
In 2014, Russia’s invasion of eastern Ukraine and new anti-gay laws spurred soccer fans around the world to take action against the 2018 World Cup hosts. Multiple corruption scandals at FIFA, which hit the headlines when seven high-ranking officials were arrested in May 2015, have piled additional pressure on sponsors and teams to take a stand, but threaten to overshadow Ukraine’s calls for action in response to Russia’s invasion of eastern Donbas.
At the qualifying draw on July 25 in St. Petersburg, controversial FIFA president Sepp Blatter came out firmly in support of both Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin.
“We say, ‘Yes’, to Russia,” he said. “Our support is especially important during the current geopolitical situation.” In return, Putin has accused the U.S. of attempting to block Blatter’s re-election to the FIFA presidency by inappropriately arresting officials outside its jurisdiction.
In the West, attempts to publicly challenge FIFA and Russia’s symbiosis have so far been largely left to individual activists, with minimal success. Even Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s calls for Ukraine’s allies to discuss boycotting the World Cup had little international effect.
In May 2014, Ukrainian-Canadian billionaire Eugene Melnyk launched ‘United with Ukraine’ to pressure World Cup sponsors to withdraw their support. His website BoycottPutinNow.com targeted Budweiser, Sony, Coca-Cola, Visa, Adidas and Hyundai/Kia.
However, the site has yet to be updated to reflect the fact that Sony chose not to renew their partnership at the end of the four-year World Cup cycle in 2014. First-tier sponsor Emirates Airlines dropped out in November last year, followed by second-tier sponsors Johnson & Johnson, Castrol, and Continental AG in May 2015.
None of the brands gave official reasons for declining to renew their contracts, but reports suggest that the FIFA corruption allegations, rather than Russia’s war against Ukraine, have spurred the decision. Sponsors Visa, McDonalds and Coca-Cola have recently demanded an independent reform commission to overhaul the governing body.
Change.org petitions have been started by both Zach Lewis in the U.S. and James Lavin in the U.K., demanding to relocate the 2018 World Cup away from Russia in light of its aggression against Ukraine and anti-gay “propaganda” laws. Despite receiving the support of high profile activists American Olympian Greg Louganis and British actor and writer Stephen Fry, the petitions have received no more than 81,250 signatures out of goals of 1,000,000.
In April 2015, 13 U.S. senators including John McCain released a letter asking Blatter to strip Russia of the 2018 World Cup, saying “allowing Russia to host the FIFA World Cup inappropriately bolsters the prestige of the Putin regime at a time when it should be condemned and provides economic relief at a time when much of the international community is imposing economic sanctions.”
However, the appeal looks unlikely to enjoy any more success than a March 2014 letter from two Republican senators, which also recommended that Russia be banned from that year’s World Cup. Russia advanced to the group stages and competed in Brazil regardless.
Although the momentum behind the relocation campaigns seems to be waning, Russia has provided a continuous stream of additional justifications for a ban or boycott. Fighting has persisted between Russian-separatist forces and the Ukrainian military despite repeated ceasefire agreements. In October 2014, FIFA screened a video in Moscow that showed occupied Crimea as part of Russia, which was hastily taken down from the website. It’s widely expected that Russia will use its United Nations Security Council veto this week to scupper a proposed international tribunal investigating the shooting down of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 over east Ukraine, which killed all 298 people on board.
Even in sports news, reports from Russia are far from positive. On July 23, FC Ufa midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong was sent off and received a two-match ban after swearing at the crowd in response to prolonged racist chanting from Spartak Moscow fans.
The Ghanaian native later apologized on Twitter, but added “I’m going to serve a sentence for being abused…and yet we are going to hold a World Cup in the country where Africans will have to come play football.”
The Russian Football Union reviewed match footage and found “no evidence of racism,” a judgment that FIFA has since officially questioned.
Although FIFA has spoken out against racism and homophobia in soccer, it remains committed to hosting the 2018 World Cup in Russia. In June 2015, the governing body released a statement announcing that there were “no legal grounds to take away the hosting of the World Cup from Russia.”
Given the vast sums of money that have already been funnelled into improving Russian infrastructure – the total budget is $11.8 billion – ahead of the games, from a financial and practical standpoint FIFA has little incentive to strip the nation of hosting rights, leaving only moral arguments in play.
FIFA remains adamant that politics and soccer should remain separate. But while Russian troops remain embedded in Ukraine’s east, forcing six soccer clubs, including Shakhtar Donetsk, to relocate further in-country, applying those rules in practice is far from simple. Sixteen months into the eastern occupation, with three years to come before the games, Russia shows no signs of relinquishing either the World Cup or Ukraine.
Sandra MacKenzie can be reached at [email protected].
