FIFA President Gianni Infantino recently expressed his desire to lift the ban on Russian football, a statement that has sparked strong opposition from Ukraine.
Sergei Palkin, CEO of Ukrainian Premier League giants Shakhtar Donetsk, said in an interview with the media: “FIFA President Gianni Infantino's statement on the return of Russian football to international competitions is completely out of touch with reality, and I am deeply disappointed by it.”
“The reality is that we have been in a full-scale war for four years, with hundreds of thousands of lives lost, cities reduced to ruins, civilian facilities, sports stadiums, energy and heating systems completely destroyed, and the lives of millions of people shattered.”
“I want to ask Infantino here, what prompted him to make such a statement at this time? Why has he never visited Ukraine in four years of war to see the situation here for himself?”
“I hope he can come and see how people live here, how children play football in Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Kyiv and Lviv, amid air raid sirens, next to air-raid shelters, under the threat of missiles and drones.”
"I invite Mr. Infantino to attend our first match in February, to talk to our players in person, to Dmytro Riznyk who lost his brother, to Denys Tvardovskyi who lost his father while defending Ukraine."
