Kulesza admits he was wrong. “Unnecessarily”. But that was not the point

– In the event of a brutal attack by Russia on Ukraine, the scheduled play-off match for promotion to the world championship cannot be held on the territory of our rival. We are waiting for a decision in this matter – said on Thursday, the president of the Polish Piki Nona Association. The Swedes and the Czechs spoke in a similar vein. Therefore, all three football federations sent a letter saying that they did not intend to play in Russia.

PZPN agreed to soften the letter to FIFA. Kulesza now admits: “unnecessarily”

“The signatories of this appeal do not take into account the trip to Russia and playing football matches there. The military escalation that we are observing has serious consequences and a significant reduction in the level of security for our national teams and official delegations,” wrote the aforementioned letter to FIFA. And here we were surprised, because the English version lacked a sentence condemning aggression. Only the phrase “conflict with Ukraine” was used.

but the Swedes opted for a milder version. This information was confirmed a few hours later by president Kulesza, who admitted his mistake.

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“The Polish Football Association condemns the Russian aggression against independent Ukraine – this is our position, which we included in the statement to FIFA. However, it was – in the English version, signed by three federations – softened by our partners. the entry of the president.

However, this was not the admission of a mistake that was at stake. The statements of the three federations caused a storm on social media. Not everyone liked its content, and more specifically the fact that the teams did not completely rule out rivalry with Russia. They only stated that they did not want to do it on the rival’s territory. . One of the journalists even suggested a version supplemented with appropriate phrases.