Pele posted his open letter to Putin online as the Ukraine football team began its play-off match against Scotland for a World Cup ticket. The Ukrainians won 3-1 in Glasgow and now compete with Wales on Sunday for participation in the World Cup in Qatar at the end of this year.
“Ukraine is trying, at least for 90 minutes, to forget the tragedy that still engulfs the country,” Pelé wrote in the letter addressed to Putin. “I want to use this match as an opportunity to make a call: stop the invasion. There is nothing to justify this continued violence. This conflict is evil, unjustified and brings nothing but pain, terror and agony. There is no reason to let this take longer.”
Pele met Putin several times in the run-up to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. “When we met in the past, laughed at each other and shook hands for a long time, I never imagined that one day we would be as divided as we are today. The power to stop this conflict is in your hands. The same hands I shook in Moscow during our last meeting in 2017.”