Glory to the Heroes

Less than 10 months ago, I was commenting about a spat between Ukraine and Russia on UKR's jersey for Euro 2020 (ne 2021). Glory to Ukraine on the jersey was okay but the additional phrase Glory to the Heroes was interpreted as a rallying cry when you put both together so the latter had to be removed.  UKR still was able to keep the complete outline of their country on the jersey despite RUS claiming the Crimea peninsula was no longer part of UKR.

Well, on Feb 21st, RUS was at it again recognizing two eastern UKR states then three days later attacking UKR from Belarus and western Russia, determined to change the map of UKR again.  Over 400 Ukrainian civilians have been killed with the count unfortunately going up every day.

As it relates to soccer, FIFA did a slow burn penalizing RUS,

first condemning the use of force on Feb 24 but keeping the status quo to moving the Path B semifinal qualification for World Cup 2022 between Scotland and RUS on March 24 from RUS to a neutral site and forced to use the name "Football Union of Russia" (Feb 26).  However, this didn't please Scotland nor its potential two opponents (Czech Rep and Sweden), who all refused to play RUS or Football Union of Russia.  Two days later, FIFA banned RUS until further notice, effectively moving POL into the Path B final.  But it wasn't until today (March 8) that POL was officially moved to the Path B final.  

RUS could appeal to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) (the same body that allowed RUS, er Russian Olympic Committee, superstar skater Kamila Valieva to participate in Women's Singles event at the Olympics despite testing positive for a banned substance - BTW, if you saw the free skate live, that was mesmerizing and emotional television with high drama and a major upset, one of the craziest sports event I've seen live on TV)) so who knows.

UKR is also in the World Cup 2022 playoffs and their Path A semifinal match in Scotland was postponed yesterday from March 24 to a summer fixture.

Interestingly, it seems like even if RUS qualified for the World Cup, they would not play under RUS name due to a doping ban in 2020 (it didn't affect Euro 2020, er 2021 since UEFA is not a major events organization), issued coincidentally enough by CAS (though they did reduce the ban from 4 years to 2, ending December 16, 2022).

And the UEFA Nations League begins in June... pray for peace.