OWhether Ukraine will take part in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar remains uncertain. Coach Olksandr Petrakov’s side, who replaced Andrei Shevchenko last August, finished second in Group D behind world champions France and secured a place in the European play-offs. Ukraine was supposed to play there in Scotland last week.
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Because of the Russian war of aggression, however, the game was initially postponed to June. Whether it can then take place is uncertain and depends on the further course of the war. As long as bombs are falling and people are dying at home, a football game with Ukraine is unimaginable. Should the blue and yellow prevail in Scotland, Wales would wait in the play-off final, having beaten Austria 2-1 in the semi-finals.
If the war continues, the world football association FIFA will have to make a decision. Theoretically, there is still longer time than June. The World Cup finals in Qatar begin on November 21st. The groups, with placeholders, will be drawn this Friday. The best-known players in Ukraine are Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City and Andrei Jarmolenko, who was once active at Borussia Dortmund and now plays for West Ham United. Ukraine only qualified for a World Cup in Germany in 2006. Back then, the team lost to Italy in the quarter-finals.
The FIFA Congress in Doha on Thursday took place without delegates from Ukraine. Instead, a short video was played of the association’s president, Andriy Pavelko, who was standing in a protective vest on a square in Ukraine. Pawelko reported on footballers killed in the Russian war of aggression and spoke of the “horror of war” that had to be overcome. “We are convinced that we can push back the aggressors and win,” said Pavelko.
Russia is absent from the World Cup in Qatar
“We don’t want to hear an air alert, we want fan chants again. We want full stadiums again instead of bombed out cities – those are our goals,” he said in the recorded message. A Russian delegation sat in the congress hall in Doha and did not speak. When the participants were called, Ukraine was listed as “present”, online participation in the voting was possible.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino on Thursday defended the decision not to shut out the Football Union of Russia entirely after the attack on Ukraine. “If we don’t have opportunities like this, like this congress, to bring people together, then we can let it go and go home,” Infantino said during the press conference after the world association’s general assembly in Doha. Officials from Russia were also present in the capital of Qatar, but not from Ukraine.
Russian teams and athletes are largely excluded from world sports, including football. Most recently, the Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS rejected the Russians’ appeal against the suspension of the teams by FIFA. Russia’s men’s national team was ruled out of World Cup qualifiers ahead of their play-off semi-final against Poland, meaning they will not take part in the finals in Qatar. “I hope that the conflict can be ended,” Infantino said. “On the very first day we are back there to play football.”
