Russians hear FIFA Congress Plea to End the War

The appearance by video of the head of Ukrainian soccer, wearing an armoured vest from the streets of Kyiv, brought the impact of Russia's war into the FIFA Congress.

Andriy Pavelko in a recorded message to the gathering in Qatar including delegates from Russia on Thursday said, "We have regularly received the sad news of the deaths of members of the Ukrainian football community."

Kyiv hosted the Champions League final just four years ago. Then the soccer world moved to Russia in 2018 for a world cup that FIFA President Gianni Infantino still celebrated as "a great success sportingly and culturally."

Russia will not be in the draw for the World Cup after being disqualified from playing intentionally by FIFA over the Russia-Ukraine war. Ukraine however, can still qualify but its playoff semifinal against Scotland has been postponed until June with the hope that the team will be in a position to get back to the field by then.

Instead of explicitly addressing a direct message to Putin, who awarded the Order of Friendship medal to Infantino after the World Cup, there was a plea to "stop conflicts and wars" generally. The Doha audience included Alexey Sorokin, the chief executive of Russia's 2018 organising committee and a former member of the FIFA Council.