BERLIN, Oct. 24 (dpa/EP) –
Shakhtar Donetsk has asked FIFA to ban Iran from playing the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, ensuring that “terrorists” should not be allowed to play the tournament when their weapons are helping to massacre the Ukrainian population, and has asked that Ukraine take your place at the meeting.
“While Iranian leaders will have fun watching their national team play at the World Cup, Ukrainians will be killed by Iranian drones and Iranian missiles,” Ukrainian club chief executive Sergei Palkin said in a statement.
Ukraine was invaded by Russia in February. The Ukrainian team played in the UEFA qualifying playoff final, but lost to Wales in June. Subsequently, FIFA and UEFA banned Russia from playing any international soccer tournament.
“Nearly 250 of these drones have already attacked peaceful cities in Ukraine. Each of them was produced and delivered by the Iranian authorities. Iranian instructors and the military directly trained and managed the drone launches that destroyed houses, museums, universities, offices , sports fields and playgrounds and, most importantly, they killed Ukrainians, including children,” Palkin insisted.
“These children who also dreamed of seeing their national team in the World Cup. Shakhtar calls on FIFA and the entire international community to immediately ban the Iranian national team from playing in the World Cup due to the country’s direct participation in terrorist attacks on Ukrainians,” he said.
Thus, he believes that the exclusion of the Asian team from the World Cup event would be “a fair decision” and that it would draw the attention of the whole world to “a regime that kills its best people and helps kill the Ukrainians.” “The vacant place must be filled by the Ukrainian national team, which proved that it is worthy of participating. With unequal conditions with other national teams during the play-offs, they played with their hearts,” he said.
“This decision is historically and sportingly justified. I urge everyone to join the pressure on the football bureaucracy. Stop repeating the mistakes of the 2018 World Cup in Russia, hiding behind the empty thesis about the apoliticization of sport. Facilitate the participation of terrorists in the World Cup is politics. It’s time to put an end to that politics,” he concluded.