President of Poland’s Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, has announced that the country’s men’s national team will not play Russia in next month’s Qatar 2022 World Cup qualification play-off.
Kulesza made the announcement on Saturday following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Poland was to take on Russia in Moscow on Thursday March 24 in the World Cup play-off tie.
The winner between Poland and Russia will entertain either Sweden or Czech Republic on March 27 for a place at this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
And following Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, Kulesza, Kulesza stated that Poland will not play the game.
“No more words, time to act! Due to the escalation of the aggression of the Russian Federation towards Ukraine the Polish national team does not intend to play the play-off match against Russia.
“We are in talks with (Swedish) and (Czech) federations to bring forward a joint statement to FIFA.”
Reacting to the announcement by Kulesza, Poland and Bayern Munich striker said:”It is the right decision!
“I can’t imagine playing a match with the Russian National Team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues,” Lewandowski tweeted. “Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can’t pretend that nothing is happening.”
Also, players of the Polish national team made their position known in a statement released, following the announcement made by the country’s FA boss.
“We, the players of the Polish national team, together with the Polish Football Association, decided that as a result of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, we do not intend to play in the play-off match against Russia.
“It is not an easy decision, but there are more important things in life than football. Our thoughts are with the Ukrainian nation and our friend from the national team, Tomasz Kedziora, who is still in Kiev with his family.”
Photo credit: Metro.co.uk
13 Comments
The right thing to do. Putin is a war criminal. Shame on him. Oyi.Olay.
Edoman watsap na? Hope you are okay? My thought actually went your side during the Uromi bank robbery…
lol. Lucky him!!! He was indoors when the robbers struck
LOL!!!
FIFA needs to kick Russia out of ALL global football competitions, as well as FIFA as a whole. Really don’t know what Infantino and the FIFA council are waiting for.
Its time to ostracize Russia from the global football community.
So you want to destroy the career of all the Russia players because of one man.
Think na boss
Mehn that stuff trended worldwide on Thursday/Friday on all social media platforms close to the Ukraine invasion.. got me very emotional!
Why did America surround Moscow with enemy military forces, AKA, NATO since 1990s, against the assurances given to the Soviet Union?
How many millions of Iraqis have the US and Britain first of all starve to death and then kill, illegally? Aren’t they human beings as well?
What about the East Ukrainians who have been killed by the various governments in Kiev since 2014? Where has your conscience been all the whole?
The Soviets, predominately Russian, lost over 20 million not to lose World War II. How many Americans were lost that they must insist on putting American dominated NATO in other people’s lands? Remember the Cuban missile crisis? I was able to read and follow. The Russians have been complaining about the threat to them. Why did the Europeans who should know better, not insist the Americans were putting Europeans especially at risk?
Please find out facts before taking sides.
How does taking sides help Africans get out of poverty and exploitation? Stop the jihadist movement of ISIS which is planned to set up a Caliphate in the Sahel and West Africa, with Burkina Faso as the HQ? We blacks must stop being exploited and misled.
@Olujimi Morgan,
Whilst it is sad that innocent lives are lost and the death toll may increase but you are absolutely spot on. If the case was reversed, America would do the same thing. It is a power game between the 2 countries, unfortunately Ukrainian lives will be the collateral damage.
Putin stated that he asked president Bill Clinton if Russia could be added to the NATO group and his reacted in way that showed they do not want them there. So you do not want them as allies but chose to tag them as an enemy and worse still you include all the neighbouring countries into NATO with a possibility of including Ukraine who shares a border with Russia into the NATO alliance. The implication is that America would have a military base in Ukraine and can hit them hard if a conflict arose whilst America is thousands of miles away.where is the fairness in that? By the way these neighbouring countries have American military presence there.
The president of Ukraine who was a comedian and ex actor showed his political naivety by trying to align with the west, almost tantamount to suicide.
Where was the outrage when America in operation “shock and awe” invaded Iraq on the premise that they had biological weapons? Only to find out that they had no such thing. What about the spoils of war , the oil wells of Iraq that American companies took over? How about the lives that were lost as a result. Why was president Bush assets not frozen? Why was America not sanctioned?
Listening to Biden call Putin an aggressor. …lol America has a history of being the aggressor. They are the only ones to use the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. Double standards.
You guys wake up the Fulanis have 8nvaded Nigeria since 2015, nationalism terrorism.
And you are more worried about Ukraine
Weep for yourselves first.
You guys wake up the Fulanis have invaded Nigeria since 2015, nationalism terrorism.
And you are more worried about Ukraine
Weep for yourselves first.
I tell you my brother.when last did the Ukrainians pray for us?? is just the Nigerans that are there that am worried for. We gat the iswap invasion and the rest and nobody is worried..
*When last did the Ukrainians or white folks pray or worry over what goes on in black nation*? Instead how to rip us off is what they will be looking at..