In light of FIFA and UEFA expelling Russia from all international competitions, a social media post quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin as saying that ‘Russia will be part of the World Cup or there will be no World Cup’ is going viral across social media platforms. Through this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: ‘Either Russia will be at the World cup 2022 or there will be no World cup’ – Vladimir Putin.
Fact: Earlier, FIFA & UEFA suspended Russian football teams from all international competitions. Responding to the suspension, Russian Football Association has announced that they will appeal the suspension with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). However, there are no reports of President Putin responding to the suspension. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Following the military action of Russia on Ukraine, earlier on 28 February 2022, FIFA & UEFA (Union of European Football Association) announced that they are suspending Russian football teams (both national representative teams and club teams) from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions.
Responding to this, the Russian Football Association has announced that they will appeal the suspension of Russian teams in international competitions imposed by the FIFA & UEFA with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Multiple news articles have also reported the Russian response, news articles can be read here and here. The press release of the Russian Football Union (RFU) in this regard, shared by a journalist can be viewed here.
However, there are no reports of Putin responding to the suspension of Russian football teams. If indeed Putin had spoken about the suspension as claimed in the post, the media would have reported it, however, we could not find any such reports.
To sum it up, Putin did not respond to the suspension of the Russian football team as claimed in this post.
