Associations such as England, Albania, Denmark, USA, Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Wales, Netherlands and Switzerland followed suit and announced that they would no longer play Russia. However, the German Football Association lacked a comparable signal, at least publicly. And at club level it was a German representative who would have had opportunities similar to those of Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden – and didn’t use them.
Leipzig missed an opportunity
RasenBallsport Leipzig was in the unfortunate situation of having drawn the Spartak Moscow lot in the round of 16 of the Europa League on Friday. It would also have been possible for the club from Leipzig to position themselves like Sweden, the Czech Republic and Poland: No more playing with Putin. Leipzig could have reaped unfamiliar to unimagined sympathy and, given the situation, could have been sure that no association would dare to score a game 3-0 for a team whose government is currently rolling tanks towards Leipzig’s twin city of Kyiv. It didn’t even need a boycott, just a call to ban Russian teams. However, the reactions from Leipzig to the draw were different.
One hopes for “a peaceful solution to the conflict. Regardless, we want to win against Spartak”, said Florian Scholz, the commercial director. From then on, Leipzig appealed to UEFA. The club from Leipzig missed the chance to show their attitude for days.
The advancement to the quarterfinals now brings Leipzig at least 1.8 million euros. Will the money be donated? “We’ll think about that,” said sporting director Oliver Mintzlaff, who tearfully defended the club’s actions and pointed to a joint approach with UEFA. It was others who found the right words.
Players union states: Time of “political neutrality” is over
The international players’ union FIFPRO said Monday that FIFA’s plan to call Russia the “Russian Football Federation” was an insufficient response to Russian aggression. “Football and sport have their own responsibility to respond. The previous policy of political neutrality has not stood the test of time.”FIFPRO wrote: “We therefore call for the Russian federation to be suspended with immediate effect until peace, security and the rule of law are restored.” words that matter.