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WARSAW, Poland , Feb 26 (AP) \u2014 Poland\u2019s refusal to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine gained wider support when Sweden followed with its own plans to protest to FIFA on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Polish soccer federation president Cezary Kulesza announced Poland\u2019s decision and said it was in talks with other federations to present a unified position to FIFA, which is responsible for the March 24 game in Moscow.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more words, time to act!\u201d Kulesza wrote on Twitter, adding the move was prompted by the \u201cescalation of the aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poland captain Robert Lewandowski and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny were among those supporting the decision, with the Bayern Munich striker saying \u201cwe can\u2019t pretend that nothing is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweden, a potential opponent of Russia in next month\u2019s playoffs, later joined Poland in declaring its national team would not play a match against the Russians regardless of where it takes place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe illegal and deeply unjust invasion of Ukraine currently makes all football fixtures with Russia impossible,\u201d said Karl-Erik Nilsson, the Swedish federation\u2019s chairman. \u201cWe therefore urge FIFA to decide that the playoff matches in March in which Russia participates will be canceled.\u201d<\/p>\n
The winner of the Poland-Russia match is due to host Sweden or the Czech Republic on March 29 for a place at the World Cup being played in Qatar from Nov. 21-Dec. 18.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a hard time believing,\u201d Nilsson added, \u201cthat FIFA will not follow our call. Russia can not join as long as this madness continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nilsson is also first vice president at UEFA which has stripped Russia of hosting the Champions League final in St. Petersburg in May. UEFA decided Friday to move that game to Paris.<\/p>\n
Lewandowski, Poland\u2019s all-time leading scorer and winner of FIFA\u2019s best-player award for the past two years, supported Kulesza\u2019s announcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine playing a match with the Russian National Team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues,\u201d Lewandowski said on Twitter. \u201cRussian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can\u2019t pretend that nothing is happening.\u201d<\/p>\n
FIFA has yet to take a clear position on Russia hosting or even playing against Poland.<\/p>\n
European soccer body UEFA said Friday that in its competitions all Russian and Ukrainian teams must now move their home games to play in other countries.<\/p>\n
A potential precedent for action is from 1992. Both FIFA and UEFA removed Yugoslavia from their competitions following sanctions imposed by the United Nations at the outbreak of war there.<\/p>\n
Previously, Poland had only said it did not want to play the qualifying playoff semifinal in Moscow.<\/p>\n
In other sports, Norway\u2019s ski federation said Saturday that Russian skiers are not welcome to compete in the Nordic country because of \u201cviolations of international law and attacks on the Ukrainian people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norway\u2019s call directly contradicts International Ski Federation (FIS) policy announced late Friday and comes days after the winter sport power topped the Beijing Olympics medal table with a record 16 golds.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s military invasion of Ukraine since Thursday requires \u201cinternational condemnation and sanctions,\u201d the Norwegian federation said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, FIS pulled its remaining World Cup events this season from Russia but later allowed Russians to carry on competing.<\/p>\n
Kyiv residents braced Saturday for another night sheltering underground, as Russian troops closed in on Ukraine\u2019s capital and skirmishes were reported on the outskirts. Ukraine\u2019s leader claimed that Ukraine\u2019s forces had repulsed the assault and vowed to keep fighting. \u201cWe will win,\u201d President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WARSAW, Poland , Feb 26 (AP) \u2014 Poland\u2019s refusal to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine gained wider support when Sweden followed with its own plans to protest to FIFA on Saturday. Polish soccer federation president Cezary Kulesza announced Poland\u2019s decision and said it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-185273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}