Similarly, soccer protests over ChinaвЂ™s treatment of its Uyghur population are unlikely to result in censure of the Chinese national team. Indeed, persistent calls on FIFA to suspend Israel over its treatment of Palestinians have fallen on deaf ears.

Palestinians, Yemenis, Afghans, Iraqis and Syrians must wonder what they have to do to make their sufferings as immediate as those of the Ukrainians. It should also be acknowledged that this sympathy in Europe appears to be related to what at best you can call cultural proximity. Aiding this is the fact that UkrainianвЂ™s elite soccer players are scattered across some of the most high-profile teams in Europe. It has led to an outpouring of sympathy shared among fans and players across Europe. Daniel Reinhardt/picture alliance via Getty Images The blue and yellow of Ukraine was featured as much as team colors during top-flight soccer games in Europe. Syria was not allowed to qualify for the World Cup in 2014 for fielding an unqualified player rather than because of the atrocities committed by the government of Bashir Al-Assad. Myanmar was excluded from the 2006 World Cup not because of the countryвЂ™s brutal military dictatorship, but for failing to play a World Cup qualifying game against Iran four years earlier.

Even in the instances where authoritarian countries have been banned by FIFA, it hasnвЂ™t been because of the actions of the state. But the point is FIFA does not usually punish national teams for the actions of the countryвЂ™s government. No sporting sanctions were placed on the Argentinian junta, which detained and executed its own population inside football stadiums that went on to host the 1978 World Cup finals, and Nigeria was allowed to compete in the 1970 World Cup qualifiers despite its government waging a war against Biafrans, which resulted in up to 2 million deaths by starvation. Nazi Germany took part in the 1938 World Cup, as did France in the World Cups of the 1950s despite that countryвЂ™s bloody wars against independence movements in Algeria and Indochina. Other than the exclusion of South Africa and Rhodesia during the apartheid era, examples of preventing national teams from competing are hard to come by. 28, 2022, to suspend Russia from international competition вЂ“ a move that could see the national team excluded from the 2022 FIFA World Cup вЂ“ breaks with a tradition of inaction by soccerвЂ™s world governing body over the ethical failings of member states.

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