December 18 – FIFA has apologised to the Ukrainian FA for displaying a map through the European part of the 2026 World Cup qualifying draw that excluded Russia-occupied Crimea from the nation’s territory.
After Ukraine protested in regards to the blunder, FIFA initially acknowledged the error with none contrition.
However its chief member affiliation officer, Elkhan Mammadov, has since written: “We totally perceive the fragile sensitivity of this matter and whereas the incident was unintentional, we sincerely remorse any concern it could have brought about.”
Mammadov defined that the map was supplied by an outdoor provider and FIFA was reviewing find out how to “guarantee such oversights don’t recur in future”.
Ukraine was certainly one of 54 nationwide groups included in Friday’s draw for European qualifying teams.
Russia, banned from FIFA competitions because the navy invasion of Ukraine, has illegally occupied Crimea since 2014. The peninsula was not colored in as a part of Ukrainian territory in a graphic broadcast through the draw occasion at FIFA headquarters.
Ukraine was drawn right into a qualifying group with both France or Croatia, plus Iceland and Azerbaijan.
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