Sweden is afraid that Russia’s World Cup suspension will give Poland an advantage
PARIS: Sweden on Wednesday expressed concern that its team would be at a disadvantage after FIFA announced that Russia will be suspended from the 2022 World Cup finals due to their invasion of Ukraine.
Poland, which will face Russia in a play-off semi-final later this month, will be left bye for one of the European play-off finals, the sport’s governing body announced on Tuesday.
For a place in the final in Qatar, Poland will face the winner of the match between Sweden and the Czech Republic.
The playoff final will be held on March 29, five days after the Swedes ‘and Czechs’ meetings, which could give the Poles an advantage due to their rest.
Håkan Sjöstrand, head of the Swedish Football Association, said that he had wanted FIFA to find a new opponent for Poland instead of Russia.
“The most reasonable and fair thing, on a sporting level, would have been for Poland to have a new opponent in the semi-finals,” said Sjostrand.
“We understand that it is a difficult situation to solve for FIFA, but still the principle of playing under the same conditions, in other words to play two competitive matches to reach the final phase of the World Cup, should apply.”
Janne Andersson, Sweden’s coach, believes that FIFA made the right decision by excluding Russia from the playoffs.
However, he referred to the decision to grant Poland free passage to the final as “completely crazy from a sporting point of view”.
“That said, we will focus entirely on the preparations for the match against the Czech Republic. We want to go to the World Cup and we will do everything to achieve that.
Following a request from the Ukrainian federation, FIFA confirmed that Ukraine’s play-off match against Scotland would be canceled until June.
Russia, which hosted the 2018 FIFA World Cup, on Tuesday appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), challenging FIFA and UEFA’s suspension from all international tournaments “for the time being.”
From November 21 to December 18, the 2022 World Cup finals will be held.
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