FIFA president Gianni Infantino has received condemnation from leaders in Ukrainian politics and sports after stating his desire on Monday to bring an end to Russia’s ban from competing in official competitions in international football.
The leader of world football’s governing body has been described as a “moral degenerate” by Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha.
Following Vladimir Putin’s full invasion of Ukraine in 2022, FIFA co-ordinated with European football’s governing body UEFA to ban Russian teams from both club and international competitions.
FIFA were broadly perceived to have been bounced into the decision following pressure from outraged European nations, several of whom made clear they would refuse to play against Russia in World Cup playoff fixtures scheduled close to the events. Nations including Poland, Sweden and England stated they would not play against Russia.
The decisions were eventually taken by the the Bureau of the FIFA Council and UEFA’s Executive Committee. In February 2022, a FIFA statement said: “Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine. Both Presidents (of FIFA and UEFA) hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people.”
FIFA also announced a $1 million (then £924,000) humanitarian donation. “In the face of this conflict, we want to do our part and support the people in Ukraine and the ones who have fled the war,” Infantino said at the time.
Yet in an interview with Sky News on Monday, Infantino said “we have to” when asked if he would explore lifting the ban on Russia.
“Definitely,” he added. “Because this ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred.”
Infantino added that FIFA “should actually never ban any country from playing football because of the acts of their political leaders” while also claiming that allowing boys and girls from Russia to play football elsewhere in Europe “could help” the situation.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Sybiha posted on social media: “679 Ukrainian girls and boys will never be able to play football — Russia killed them. And it keeps killing more while moral degenerates suggest lifting bans, despite Russia’s failure to end its war. Future generations will view this as a shame reminiscent of the 1936 Olympics.”
Ukraine’s sports minister Matvii Bidnyi also criticized Infantino, saying on social media: “Gianni Infantino’s words sound irresponsible — not to say infantile. They detach football from the reality of children being killed … As long as Russians continue killing Ukrainians and politicising sport, their flag and national symbols have no place among people who respect values such as justice, integrity and fair play.”
Bidnyi gave examples of young Ukrainian athletes and sports lovers whose lives had been claimed. He cited the case of Illia Perezhogin, “a 10th-grade student at a Mariupol school, who was simply playing football at his school stadium when a Russian missile struck.”
He continued: “Former futsal player Viktoriia Kotliarova was killed together with her mother during the shelling of Kyiv on December 29, 2023. She was a Kyiv Student Futsal Cup champion and a winner of the Dynamo Student League tournament.”
In a statement, the Ukrainian Football Association (UFA) said they urged FIFA and its president “not to change the position of football authorities on excluding Russians from football competitions while the war against Ukraine continues.”
Posting on Facebook, the UFA said: “Military actions on the territory of Ukraine continue, the situation has not improved, attacks destroy civilian infrastructure and the lives of civilians. Russians continue to attack on the front line. Due to constant attacks of settlements throughout the country, millions of Ukrainians are left without light, water and heat.
“We disagree with the claim that a ban against the aggressor does not work. We believe that suspension from participation in competitions is an effective method of pressure against the aggressor. The potential reintegration of any national team of Russia jeopardizes the security and integrity of the competition.”
In 2023, FIFA and UEFA lifted bans on Russia Under-17 teams from participating in international tournaments across the men’s and women’s game, provided they competed as the “Football Union of Russia,” and in the absence of their national flag, their national anthem, their national-team kit and equipment, and played in neutral colors.
UEFA then U-turned on their plans to reinstate Russia’s under-17 side in the age-group youth European Championship in 2024 following pushback from member associations, including England.
UEFA had said previously that football “should never give up sending messages of peace and hope.” Under UEFA’s initial plan, proposed matches would have been conducted without the Russian flag, anthem, or kit, and would not take place on Russian territory.
Infantino’s comments opposing bans on national teams comes amid pressure for FIFA to take action against Israel.
FIFA was accused by the Palestinian Football Association in May of failing to provide “clarity or due process” as part of its ongoing investigation into alleged breaches of its statutes by Israeli football teams and authorities, amid the war in Gaza and Israeli support of settlements in Palestinian territories. As of October 2025, over 68,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza, according to numbers cited by the BBC attributed to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry, following an escalation of the conflict after October 7 attack in 2023, when an estimated 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led attack on Israel.
FIFA have previously been scrutinised over their relationship with Russia after the men’s World Cup in 2018 was held in the country, four years after the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian territory of Crimea and incursion in the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014.
Sergei Palkin, the CEO of Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk, told The Athletic in September 2022: “Everybody should have called attention to what was going on and everybody kept silent. You see what happened next and it is clear that 2018 was a big, big mistake. Putin did all those things in Crimea and he waited for the reaction from European organisations and there was no (big) reaction.
“This is one of the reasons for what then happened on February 24, when Ukraine was invaded. They are connected stories. If, in 2014, there had been a strong reaction from the whole European Union, from organisations like FIFA, from the whole world, maybe this (latest) war would never happen. But I am telling you, 100 per cent, when FIFA allows Russia to have the World Cup in 2018, Putin believes and thinks his actions are OK, that he can take more and more steps.”
Upon receipt, Infantino said to Putin: “This is not the end; it is only the beginning of our fruitful cooperation and interaction. On behalf of the whole football world, which means four or five billion people across the globe, thank you very much.”