FIFA World Cup: Scottish FA boycotts Russia fixtures; in talks over playoff schedule

The ongoing Russia Ukraine War has seen the sporting world offering its support to the Ukraine athletes and football governing bodies like  UEFA, FIFA takes away the hosting rights of Champions League and also kicking Russia out of FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The England FA has earlier decided against playing football matches against Russia and now the Scottish FA supported their English counterpart by deciding to boycott their matches gainst Russia. 

Scottish FA offers Ukraine support boycotts Russia fixtures

Scotland are also due to host Ukraine in a World Cup play-off semi-final on 24 March, while the countries are due to meet in a women’s World Cup qualifier on 8 April. In a statement released by Scottish FA it said that should the current circumstances continue”, it would not sanction a scheduled August fixture against Russia in the UEFA Regions Cup, a tournament for amateur teams.

The statement further said,  “The Scottish FA president, Rod Petrie, has written to his counterpart at the Ukrainian Association of Football to send a message of support, friendship and unity. Football is inconsequential amid conflict, but we have conveyed the strong sense of solidarity communicated to us by Scotland fans and citizens in recent days". "We remain in dialogue with Uefa and Fifa regarding our men’s World Cup play-off and women’s World Cup qualifier and have offered to support our Ukrainian colleagues’ preparations as best we can in these unimaginably difficult circumstances.This will remain our position should any other fixtures arise at any level of international football,”.

Russia kicked out of FIFA World Cup 2022

The international and European club football bodies FIFA and UEFA have decided to suspend Russian clubs and national teams from competing in all competitions, including the FIFA World Cup which will be held in Qatar. FIFA in it' statement said," These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the Executive Committee of UEFA, respectively the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters. Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine. Both Presidents hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people".

UEFA has already stripped Russia the rights of hosting this season's UEFA Champions League Final in May. The UCL final was supposed to be held on May 28 in St Petersburg but will instead be held in Paris. According to Bild, Russian club football team Spartak Moscow has been removed from the UEFA Europa League. The club is partially owned by former Russian military officer Leonid Fedun. As a result, Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig will directly progress to the quarter-finals of the competition.