Editor's note: This article was updated to include a response from FIFA, the world soccer governing body. The Swiss-based non-profit removed the sequence that showed the Crimean peninsula as part of Russia on map of Russia from a video it published on Oct. 28.
Aside from North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela, FIFA, the world soccer governing body, appears to have also recognized Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
In a video FIFA published on its
official YouTube channel on Oct. 28 to unveil the 2018 World Cup logo, the Ukrainian region of Crimea is shown on a map as part of Russia, the host country of the
soccer tournament that year. The video was removed on Oct. 30 following Kyiv Post inquiry to the Swiss-based World Cup organizer.
“As part of the Official Emblem launch for the 2018 FIFA World Cup the Local Organizing Committee commissioned a local creative agency with an art projection on the Bolshoi Theatre as a unique photo and filming opportunity. Unfortunately the map of Russia selected and used during the projection by the local service provider escaped our attention and the short sequence in question has been removed,” FIFA spokesman told the Kyiv Post in an email.
Since being published,
the video has been viewed more than 9,000 times.
Markian Lubkivsky,
adviser to the State Security Service (SBU) chief who ran the 2012 European
soccer championship organizing committee in Ukraine, has asked Ukrane’s Football
Federation and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to protest and file a lawsuit
regarding the video that features Crimea as a part of Russia.
“I consider that it’s
necessary to warn all international media, map-making and geodesic
organizations regarding responsibility for depicting a map of the Russian Federation
with a part of Ukraine’s territory,” Lubkivsky said in a Facebook post on
Oct.30. “If we don’t react tough to such things, there will be nothing left of
us soon.”
The Football Federation
of Ukraine said it won’t make an official statement until it gets an explanation
from FIFA first.
“We shall take action
once we understand the motivation for doing this – whether it is a mistake, a
small inaccuracy or principled step taken by FIFA,” Pavlo Ternovy, press
secretary of Football Federation of Ukraine, told the Kyiv Post.
Ironically, the video
was released on the day that FIFA’s president, Stepp Blatter, who visted Moscow
to present the logo, said that the political situation should not affect sports
in a response to calls for boycotting and changing the tournament’s venue because
of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
In late February, Russian forces occupied Crimea, starting with the takeover of key government buildings, followed by Ukrainian military bases. By March, Russian occupiers had taken complete control of the peninsula, and subsequently annexed it by holding a sham referendum that Kyiv and the West denounced.
“FIFA is fully
supporting the World Cup in Russia,” Blatter was quoted by Reuters news agency
as saying. “Football can’t only unite Russia, but can also show the whole world
that it is stronger than any protest movement,” he said.
While FIFA sometimes
suspends associations, it hasn’t revisited the hosting decision on Russia. Calls
by Ukraine’s soccer governing body to sanction the Russian Football Union over
Crimean football clubs playing under the aegis of Russia were also not successful.
FIFA’s policy regarding
Russia is believed to be linked to allegedly corrupt members of the body. Investigations
by British media , in particular, have revealed an alleged case of bribery
involving FIFA executive committee members when they voted in 2010, same year
Russia was awarded hosting rights, to give Quatar the rights to host the tournament
in 2022.
The new video posted by FIFA on Oct.30 has no map of Russia featured.
