The football federations of all of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic have released a joint-statement on Thursday, confirming a hard stance against current developments in Russia.

The news of course comes amid a widespread backlash against Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine, stemming from Vladimir Putin’s decision to send troops into the separatist regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

This comes with both having seen their independence recognised by the Russian president on Monday.

The sporting world, in turn, is just one section of society to have quickly made their disgust with the situation clear, with a major development surrounding the scheduled round of upcoming World Cup qualifiers due to take place next month having this afternoon been confirmed.

As alluded to above, all of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic’s football federations have confirmed that they have no intention of fulfilling their playoff fixtures for this year’s Qatar showpiece, so long as they are held on Russian soil.

Russia are due to play host to Poland on the 24th of March, with the winners of that tie then lined up to face their counterparts from Sweden’s meeting with the Czech Republic.

In a joint-statement across social media on Thursday, however, all three have confirmed that they will simply refuse to take part, should fixtures go ahead in Russia as planned:

Gazprom out

The football-based fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, has not ended with simply developments on the international front.

In addition, German heavyweights Schalke 04 confirmed in a statement of their own on Thursday afternoon that the club intend to part ways with shirt sponsor Gazprom with immediate effect.

This comes with Gazprom, giants of the energy field across the globe, state-owned in Russia.

 

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