It’s never pretty when politics overflows onto the football field but it seems as though the controversy surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is doing just that.
Last week two US senators wrote to FIFA requesting the banning of Russia from the competition due to the political unrest unfolding in the Crimea.
In response, Aleksandr Sidyakin and Mikhail Markelov, deputies from the Russian State Duma which is the country’s lower parliament house, have sent a petition to FIFA demanding the United States be kicked out of this year’s World Cup and have its membership of the world soccer’s governing body terminated.
As reasons for the ban, the politicians cite aggressive actions against Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya and attempts to encroach on Syria.
“It’s an eye for an eye, a ball for a ball. Don’t let the USA take part in the 2014 World Cup! End their membership of FIFA,” Sidyakin wrote on Twitter.
