FIFA makes same mistakes as IOC in appeasing Russia

At times like these, when the world’s eyes are on a war unfolding in eastern Europe, focusing on the role of sports in the grand picture might seem a trivial and pointless diversion.

A key element of any war, though, is the fight for public perception, the battle for hearts and minds. Soccer teams, judo federations, even chess organizations are chastising and dismissing Russia in retaliation for its invasion of Ukraine. Refusing to play Russian teams, barring Russian athletes from competing, moving major championships out of Russia … it all has a cumulative, tangible effect of isolating Russia on the world stage.

Sports are never only about what happens on the field. Dictators like Vladimir Putin crave the prestige that comes from winning gold medals. China can spin the recently concluded, locked-down Olympics as a well-executed masterpiece. Saudi Arabia can attempt to sportswash itself clean by throwing tens of millions at the world’s most notable golfers. Nobody with any real power is sticking to sports for sports’ sake.

Hosting, and winning, major sporting events confers legitimacy and public pride no other cultural endeavor can match. (This works stateside, too; the fine people of Athens, Georgia, and the several dozen Angelenos who call themselves Rams fans, are walking prouder these days.)

That’s why it’s so crucial that sports’ governing bodies take their power seriously, and why it’s constantly disappointing — but never surprising — when they brush off that responsibility to curry favor with autocracies and chase easy, amoral wealth.

On the worldwide front, soccer is in the midst of qualifying for the World Cup, the once-every-four-years championship that unifies the planet like no other international endeavor. FIFA, soccer’s organizing body, wields vast power … and, like the International Olympic Committee, constantly chooses the path that will lead to its own continued enrichment. With Russia, FIFA has finally dropped the hammer ... but only after it spent the first few days of the invasion making literally the exact same mistake the IOC made eight years ago.

Back then, after the discovery of a state-sanctioned doping operation at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, the IOC had the regulatory equivalent of an open-court breakaway. But instead of an easy slam dunk, the IOC ended up somehow swallowing the ball and flying backward into the seats. The IOC didn’t kick Russia to the curb, banning the country from multiple Olympic Games. Instead, Russia suffered the “punishment” of having its athletes compete under a slightly modified name and a different anthem … and that was pretty much it.

Here’s a shocker: That “punishment” didn’t immediately lead to Russia seeing the light, changing its ways and renouncing all doping. The under-the-table performance enhancement just kept right on humming along, leading directly to the heartbreaking, infuriating debacle that was the women’s skating competition at the Olympics a couple weeks back.

With a complete lack of historical perspective, FIFA initially proposed almost literally the exact same punishment: allowing Russia to continue to play, albeit under the name “Football Union of Russia.” Yeah, nobody will be able to figure out where that mystery team hails from. Under immense worldwide pressure, FIFA on Monday finally booted all Russian teams and clubs from international play "until further notice."

It’s all part of FIFA’s ongoing coziness with Putin and Russia, which hosted the 2018 World Cup. The bidding process for that event, and Qatar later this year, was part of a literal worldwide conspiracy, a corrupt cash-for-votes enterprise that ensnared multiple FIFA members and resulted in substantial turnover at the top of FIFA.

Gianni Infantino took over FIFA in 2016 with a promise to clear up the rot of corruption that infested FIFA right to the foundations. Three years later, he accepted an Order of Friendship medal from Putin. Three more years after that, he attempted to handle Putin with an initial punishment that was about as severe as offering him only the second-best bottle of wine with his steak. On the house, of course.

Granted, FIFA’s situation isn’t directly analogous to the IOC — the Russian national soccer team isn’t involved in the invasion of Ukraine — but the same overarching rule applies. Appeasement will do nothing. Russia’s qualifying opponents know this, which is why they’ve all agreed not to even take the field against Russia, whatever name it goes by.

“We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances,” Cezary Kulesza, president of the Polish Football Association, tweeted Sunday. “Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”

Sweden and the Czech Republic affirmed that stance, and all three nations, which were in a four-team qualifier with Russia, had indicated they would rather forfeit and give up their chance at a once-every-four-years World Cup than take the pitch with Russia.

Other soccer entities took direct action — UEFA has pulled the Champions League final from St. Petersburg, a significant punishment — but FIFA spent too much time focused on finger-wagging and disapproving press releases.

“FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organizations to determine any additional measures or sanctions, including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly,” FIFA noted in its initial news release. Please don’t force us to consider possibly debating the viability of additional meetings to consider options at some undetermined point in the future, Russia.

The IOC gave FIFA the cover it needed to finally make the call to ban Russia. Monday morning, the IOC called on athletic organizations worldwide to exclude Russian and allied Belarusian athletes and officials from international sporting events. It’s unclear if the IOC will adhere to that decree in the upcoming Paralympics, or if this is a “do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do” decree.

FIFA and the IOC didn’t achieve their positions of worldwide influence by valuing morality over financial gain. But with the largest military action on European soil since World War II growing ever more grim, the calls for any entity with power to take all necessary action will only grow. Right now, the fans and players who love international soccer possess more spine than the people who run it.

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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter at @jaybusbee or contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com.