Russia is a “terrorist organization,” says Andrei Pavelko, president of the Football Union of Ukraine. He therefore calls on FIFA to exclude the country immediately. According to Pawelko, there is even a concrete formal approach for this.
The President of the Ukrainian Football Association Andrei Pavelko has called for the exclusion of Russia and Iran from the world association FIFA. In the “Sportschau” interview, Pavelko reacted, among other things, to alleged plans to integrate clubs from the annexed Crimean peninsula into the Russian league. The Iranian association should lose its FIFA membership because of human rights violations in the country.
“Everyone is responsible for what happens in their country and for being a representative of a country that recognized the whole world as a threat to the whole world,” Pavelko said. Russia, which has been waging a war of aggression against Ukraine since February, is a “terrorist organization that kills people.”
The apparently planned integration of the teams from Crimea is also “a direct violation of the statutes” of the international associations. “Therefore, it would be an important decision by FIFA and UEFA to ban the Football Union of Russia after such a breach,” said Pavelko. Russian football teams are currently suspended from all international competitions. However, the Football Union of Russia is still a member of FIFA and UEFA. According to Pavelko, the Ukrainian federation has submitted requests for an exclusion.
In calling for tough action against Iran, Pavelko followed the lead of several other organizations in the wake of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on civil movements in the country. Iran has qualified for the World Cup in Qatar, which begins on November 20th.
Sergei Palkin, general director of the Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk, had made a statement just a few days ago, as clear as Pawelko is now. “Shakhtar calls on FIFA and the entire international community to immediately ban the Iranian national team from playing in the World Cup due to the country’s direct involvement in terrorist attacks against Ukrainians,” Palkin said.
While the “Iranian leadership is enjoying watching their national team play the World Cup, Ukrainians are being killed by Iranian drones and Iranian missiles,” Palkin said. For weeks, Kyiv has accused Tehran of supplying the Shahed 136 kamikaze drone to Moscow. Both Iran and Russia deny this. However, there are numerous indications that Iranian-made drones are being used by Moscow.
