There is something almost ritualistic about the way football brings us together. On muddy local pitches on rainy Tuesday evenings. In packed stadiums on Sunday afternoons. In living rooms, clubhouses and dressing rooms across continents. Football is not just a sport. It is culture, community and identity. For millions of children, it is where dreams begin.
That is precisely why FIFA’s wavering course on the exclusion of Russia from international football is so deeply troubling. This is not merely a matter of sports governance. It is about what kind of world we are becoming if we repeatedly choose convenience over principle.
When “neutrality” becomes a disguise
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there was, briefly, moral clarity. The international community reacted. Sanctions were imposed. Institutions took a stand. The world of sport did so as well. FIFA and UEFA excluded Russian teams and national sides from competitions.
This was not “politics entering sport”. It was an acknowledgement that sport cannot hide behind neutrality when international law is being trampled.
Yet today, only a few years later, we hear voices from the highest levels of FIFA – including its president Gianni Infantino – speaking about “pathways back”, about football’s “unifying power”, and about the need to “separate sport from politics”.
These words sound comforting. They are also profoundly misleading.
There is no value-neutral sport in a world where cities are razed, children abducted, women raped, and war crimes systematically documented. When a state – with Belarus as an active accomplice – violates the most basic rules of war, human rights and international order, sport does not have the moral right to blur the distinction between aggressor and victim.
Fair play – the shared conscience of sport
In sport, we often speak of fair play as something that happens on the pitch: respecting the referee, the opponent, the rules of the game. But fair play is more than technical compliance. Fair play is the shared conscience of sport. It is the moral compass that tells us when something is wrong – even when it is convenient to look away.
This shared conscience is what keeps cynicism out of sport. Without it, football becomes mere entertainment governed by money, power and expediency. With it, football becomes a global community built on the idea that there are limits one cannot cross without consequences.
When FIFA speaks of “normalising” relations with Russia and Belarus in the absence of a just peace in Ukraine, without accountability for war crimes, it is not only undermining political principles. It is betraying the moral core of sport itself.
It sends a message to young players that rules matter on the field – but can be bent off the field when the price is high enough. That fair play applies to tackles and fouls, but not to mass graves and stolen children.
If sport loses this shared conscience, it loses its moral anchor. Football will no longer teach children the difference between right and wrong. It will merely mirror the cynicism already corroding our international institutions.
What signal are we sending – and to whom?
FIFA’s wavering sends a message not only to Russia, but to authoritarian regimes everywhere:
Wait long enough, and the outrage will fade.
Speak of peace – without justice – and the doors will reopen.
This is a dangerous signal. It suggests that crimes against civilians, deportations of children and systematic violations of human rights do not necessarily carry lasting consequences – not even in institutions that claim to stand for “respect” and “unity”.
When FIFA discusses welcoming Russia back into the fold without a just peace in Ukraine, football’s values are reduced to branding slogans. And that erosion is felt all the way down to grassroots football clubs across Europe.
Football and the dreams of children
In many countries, football is the first community children experience outside their families. It is where they learn rules, responsibility, teamwork and fairness. They learn that you cannot keep playing if you assault your opponent. That cheating has consequences.
What do we tell these children if the world’s most powerful football institution accepts that states can commit war crimes – and then quietly return to the international stage as if nothing happened?
What do we say to a 12-year-old goalkeeper who learns that rules apply to everyone – while the powerful learn that rules apply only until they become inconvenient?
Sport is part of the world – not above it
As Chairperson of the Parliamentary Alliance for Good Governance and Integrity in Sport of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, I see clearly how sport today is intertwined with human rights, democracy and international order. Sport has become geopolitics, whether we like it or not.
Those who lead global sport therefore carry a responsibility far beyond fixtures and broadcasting rights. They shape norms. They influence how millions understand justice, accountability and community.
Choosing pragmatism over principle is not a technical decision. It is a moral one. It shapes our global culture of responsibility – or of impunity.
Freedom requires responsibility – also in sport
As a liberal, I believe deeply in freedom. But classical liberalism has never meant freedom without responsibility. Freedom depends on shared rules. Community depends on consequences when those rules are violated.
When FIFA begins to relativise those consequences, it weakens not only the credibility of sport, but the fragile architecture of international norms – from human rights law to multilateral institutions.
If no one defends the rules, the world will be governed by power rather than principle.
What should be done?
First, FIFA must unequivocally maintain the exclusion of Russia until there is a just peace in Ukraine – and until accountability for documented war crimes has been addressed. Not as revenge, but as principle.
Second, European football associations must stand firm: neutrality in the face of aggression is not neutrality. It is tacit acceptance.
Third, global sport institutions must be reformed so they are not held hostage by short-term commercial interests and authoritarian pressure.
The future of football – and our shared responsibility
Football remains one of humanity’s most powerful cultural forces. It can unite people across language, class and borders. It can give children dreams and societies moments of shared meaning.
But only if we insist that football’s community rests on more than broadcasting deals and diplomatic shortcuts.
When FIFA wavers in the face of war crimes and aggression, it is not only football’s soul that is at stake. It is our collective belief that the world still has rules – and that those rules apply to everyone.
If we allow sport to drift into cynicism, we teach the next generation that fair play is something we talk about – not something we live by.
By Kim Valentin, Danish MP, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Alliance for Good Governance and Integrity in Sport of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.