More than a dozen U.S. senators think that Russia has dropped the ball.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) along with 11 more senators penned a letter to the head of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) Josef Blatter requesting that Russia be barred from hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup because of the country’s “ongoing violations of the territorial integrity of Ukraine.”
“Allowing Russia to host the FIFA World Cup inappropriately bolsters the prestige of the Putin regime at a time when it should be condemned and provides economic relief at a time when much of the international community is imposing economic sanctions,” declares the letter, which was sent March 31.
The U.S. lawmakers deem it “unacceptable” for FIFA to refuse to put the relocation of the competition up for a vote even as dozens of countries that are FIFA members have implemented sanctions on Russia to help stall Putin’s “dismemberment of Ukraine.”
“With the goal of ending the crisis in Ukraine and ensuring a successful 2018 World Cup, we strongly encourage FIFA to deny the Putin regime the privilege of hosting the 2018 World Cup and make preparations for an alternate host country,” the note concludes.
The other senators that signed the letter include: Sens. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), John Cornyn (R-Tex.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), James Risch (R-Idaho), Patrick Toomey (R-Pa.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.).
