The president of FIFA Gianni Infantino called, this Tuesday, November 15, 2022, Russia to a cease-fire of a month in Ukraine, for the time of the Football World Cup, which started in Qatar on November 20 and ends on December 18, 2022.
“My call to all of you is to reflect on a temporary cease-fire for a month for the duration of the World Cup,” he said during a lunch for G20 leaders gathered on the Bali Indonesian island, but in the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin represented by his chief of diplomacy Sergei Lavrov.
Gianni Infantino praised the unifying role of football, recalling that Russia had organized the 2018 World Cup and that Ukraine was a candidate to host competition in 2030 with Spain and Portugal.
“We are not naive to the point of thinking that football can solve the problems of the world,” he said. But the World Cup offers a unique platform, with an estimated audience of five billion spectators, offering an “opportunity to do everything possible to put an end to all conflicts,” he argued.
