Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA, assured this Thursday that his organization is closely following the war in Ukraine, appealed for “constructive dialogue” for its resolution and declared that he is waiting for the evolution of the conflict to make decisions on the qualifying matches for the Qatar World Cup that will be played in March.
There are four matches that will be played on the day 24 of that month: Wales-Austria, Sweden-Czech Republic and, above all, Scotland-Ukraine and Russia-Poland, with two of the countries affected by the conflict as protagonists.
After the meeting of the FIFA Council, Infantino, at a press conference, addressed the situation of football in relation to the war in Ukraine and declared that his body is “very concerned” about the situation in addition to expressing his ” hopes” that hostilities will cease quickly so that peace can come to Ukraine.
“FIFA condemns the use of force by Russia and the use of any kind of violence. Violence is never the solution. We call on all parties to restore peace through constructive dialogue”, he stated.
He assured that FIFA is “extremely” concerned about the situation and reported that it is in “continuous contact” with the different federations that have to play the qualifying matches for the World Cup in Qatar 2022.
“For example, with the Russian federation and with the rest. Right now, this situation is constantly evolving. We believe that we have to continue monitoring the situation to make a decision that we will always make based on our statutes, in which a match can be suspended. In the world there are several countries with conflicts and FIFA has to deal with these situations. Always in dialogue with all the parties and adopting the appropriate decisions when we are ready”, he commented.