Polish national soccer player Maciej Rybus’ continued involvement with Russian top-flight clubs is costing him his participation in the forthcoming World Cup finals in Qatar.
Poland’s association PZPN confirmed at the beginning of the week that the 32-year-old defender of the Russian record champions Spartak Moscow was removed from the candidate list of its national coach Czeslaw Michniewicz.
Accordingly, the coach personally informed Bayern Munich’s star striker Robert Lewandowski of his waiver. Michniewicz told the 66-time international that “because of his current club situation, he will not be nominated for the World Cup training camp in September and will not be considered when calling up Qatar’s World Cup squad”.
The defensive strategist recently announced his move to local rivals Spartak after five years at Lokomotiv Moscow. It is not known whether the PZPN or Michniewicz had already informed the full-back about the possible consequences for his career in the national team before his transfer decision.
Poland has taken a consistent stance on Russia ever since the Russian army launched a war of aggression against its neighbor Ukraine.
Because of the attack, the Poles early in the spring declared their boycott of the upcoming World Cup play-off against Russia and thus initiated the exclusion of the 2018 World Cup host from the elimination for the World Cup tournament in the Gulf by the world association FIFA. Ultimately, Lewandowski and Co. made it to Qatar in the play-offs by beating Sweden 2-0.
Swedish basketball player also sanctioned
Rybus’ expulsion from the Polish national team is not the first personal sanction against a professional athlete for a foreign engagement in Russia.
In Sweden, for example, basketball star Jonas Jerebko was also thrown out of the national team after signing a contract in the Russian capital with CSKA Moscow, after the former power forward of the Golden State Warriors from the North American professional league NBA a few weeks earlier for the Scandinavians had gone basket hunting.
Although the 35-year-old only canceled his “in several respects difficult” contract in Moscow last weekend, the national association SBBF continued to uphold his suspension, at least for the time being.
Poland’s footballers will miss Rybus in Qatar. The defender is one of the most experienced players in Michniewicz’s squad. In Qatar in preliminary round group C Poland meets two-time world champions Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.