How Russia is creeping back into football

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, firstly in 2014, but in far greater and deadlier numbers on February 24th 2022 the country has been isolated politically, economically and culturally.

And Russia has been suspended from UEFA and FIFA. But they want to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. How could they do that? Would they have to move federations? Well, it has been done before.

James Montague explains. Philippe Fenner illustrates.

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#Russia

[sususegar]

To say that Australia switched to Asian qualifiers because they're tired of smashing Oceania opponents is way too generous. The truth is they were fed up of getting smashed by South Americans in almost every playoff.

[abfnjewbgalr]

Russia playing in the 2026 World Cup in the US would be *wild*

[ohyeah]

So what I take from this whole thing is: it depends on how much FIFA are offered in bribery...

[Drunken_Master]

I wonder if Infantino was obliged to return all bribe money when he agreed to suspend Russia from FIFA.

[arturpetrosyan]

1. Kazakhstan only joined UEFA in 2002, not in 1991;
2. Russia refused to take part in the CAFA tournament a couple of weeks ago.

[BABA-lxob]

How much times USA was banned in the sports and cultural events for their "bringing democracy" in Guaetemala, Syria, Iraq, Afganistan, Yugoslavia, Cuba, Vietnam.... ?
Stop with your hipocrisy.

[benharrington]

will be interesting how australia react if russia is accepted into asia, considering how similar australia is to western countries

[eavyeavy]

Tell me why football clubs and footballers should be punished for something that has nothing to do with them? I don’t remember the USA and U.K. being suspended when they invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia haven’t been suspended, despite their 5 year war in Yemen making Ukraine look like a picnic. And Israel are still uefa despite shelling civilians on a daily basis, levelling entire apartment blocks and neighbourhoods killing all families including women and children in them

[tvstealer]

Why was Israel given wins when opponents refused to play, but not Russia?

[MrRodzilla]

the next video should be about how america and uk avoided football bans after invading iraq

[ario]

It will never not be astonishing to me that in the age of Saudi Arabia tapping up Messi and Ronaldo, and buying Newcastle, while acting like Russian athletes shouldn’t even be allowed to exist in their counties.

[keithroberts]

I wanted to say a lot about this video, but the best part is talking about Putin being wanted for war crimes by the ICC yet they've never made a video about Bush from the USA being wanted. Neither nation is under ICC jurisdiction btw.

[AtomicVoid]

If FIFA applied it's principles uniformly, then many countries would be suspended, including the US.

[omarperezpulido]

International Relations and Fútbol, my favorite combination

[YevOnegin]

They shouldn't have to "creep" into anything. If France and the US haven't been ostracized for their destruction of countries over the last 20 years, then Russia shouldn't either.

[aidanmagill]

Britain, U.S and France never banned from one tournament. Saudi Arabia participated in WC qualifying and the World Cup itself despite their war crimes in Yemen.
Why should Russia have been banned?

[subhamde]

It's funny how United States of America did crimes against humanity and FIFA is blind about it but is very focal and vocal on what Russia did with Ukraine...
Funny how a sport is run more based on international politics rather than the sport itself

[huanglee]

I'm from an asian country where one of the ally country of the West committed genocide with the weapons supplied by the US and the collective west. When this issue was brought into question in UN, only country that supported us was Soviet Union. After 50 years US finally passed a bipartisan resolution recognising the genocide. Don't you think after that every country, I'm assuming including yours, that helped that genocide happen should be banned from the world football. But rules work different for you guys, right?

[nikudevin]

Why didn't FiFa banned USA when they invaded Iraq

[khanhnguyentrieu]

Vietnamese here. It would be very interesting to see Russia competing in the Asian Cup. Their participation will increase the competitiveness of the tournament, which has long been dominated by teams like Japan, Australia, or Iran. It would also give us, the Vietnamese team, a chance to play against a superior team from Europe (we don't often get invited to play friendlies against European teams). And just imagine an Asian Cup being held in Russia, in January/February (the normal tournament timeframe).
As for politics, do you really Asians (except Japan, South Korea, Australia) care that much? From our view, the war is strictly a problem between Russia and the West, not a problem for Asia.