Calls to cancel Russia's World Cup

The Dutch soccer association (KNVB) wants to postpone discussion over participation in the next World Cup in Russia as an angry country on Wednesday mourned victims of the Malaysian airliner allegedly shot down over Ukraine by armed separatists on a flight from Amsterdam last week.

The KNVB said in a statement it had received many questions over playing in the 2018 World Cup in Russia but felt a debate should be delayed while the country observed a national day of mourning.

All 298 people on board the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 died when it was brought down on July 17 in eastern Ukraine, where Kiev is struggling to quell the rebellion.

Two-thirds of the victims were Dutch and the disaster has led to calls for strong sanctions against Russia, even if it hurts the Dutch economy, opinion polls published on Wednesday showed.

"The association is well aware that a future World Cup in Russia will stir a lot of emotion among football lovers and the next of kin in the Netherlands," the KNVB said.

"Standing still to remember our enormous loss is now the priority. The KNVB believes it would be more appropriate to hold the discussion over the future World Cup in Russia at a later time once the investigation into the disaster is completed."

The Netherlands finished third at the World Cup in Brazil this month, but a national mood of euphoria has been replaced by shock, grief and anger.

With 193 of the dead from the Netherlands, Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said almost every family in the country of 15 million knew someone who had died, or their relatives.

Russia has blamed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for the crash because he refused to extend a ceasefire with the separatist fighters.

Moscow denies supporting the separatists.

In a seperate development, Putin toured the display of architectural plans for seven stadiums being constructed in preparation for the World Cup, according to Itar-Tass.

Putin expressed hope that this project "will leave a wonderful legacy, allowing us not only to showcase the talent of our high-level athletes, our football players, but also allowing young athletes, such as the ones standing across from me, to build their athletic future, to be involved in sports and physical culture - not occasionally, but every day"

German call

Meanwhile, German politicians on Wednesday demanded that Russia be stripped of the right to host the 2018 World Cup for fueling the Ukraine conflict, although soccer officials quickly rejected the idea.

Amid outrage over the downing of the jet in Ukraine, lawmakers and commentators in Germany, as well as Britain and Sweden, suggested another country should host the global sporting event.

Peter Beuth, interior minister of Germany's central Hesse state, said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin does not get "actively involved in the investigation of the plane crash, then a 2018 World Cup is unimaginable in Russia".

Beuth, who heads Germany's conference of state sports ministers, called on soccer's world body FIFA to review the choice of host nation.

Senior conservative lawmaker Michael Fuchs said that Germany, along with France and Italy, could easily host the championship instead.

"We have enough stadiums that are World Cup ready," he said, stressing that such a boycott would hurt Russia more than economic sanctions.

However, Theo Zwanziger, a FIFA executive committee member and former president of German soccer body DFB, rejected the idea.

"Calls for a FIFA intervention always come very quickly. Sports boycotts have rarely achieved anything, and that's why I think nothing of such a proposal," he told Handelsblatt Online.

"The World Cup has been awarded to Russia, contracts have been signed and rights have been awarded."

A German government spokesman also dismissed the issue, saying the Cup "is still four years away. I think we have more pressing problems."

In Britain, conservative MP Tracey Crouch, a member of the culture, media and sport select committee, also said "Russia ought to be stripped now ... Football could be used to put pressure on President Putin to change some of his practices."

In Sweden, Per Kaageson of Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology, argued in the Svenska Dagbladet daily that "for Russia and for Putin personally, the loss of the World Cup would be a big defeat.

"Not only Ukraine but also the Netherlands, Malaysia and Australia can be expected to have mixed feelings regarding a tournament in Russia."

(China Daily 07/25/2014 page24)