Some governing bodies will allow athletes to compete if they distance themselves from the Putin regime, but is this fair on their Ukrainian opponents?When the horrors inflicted on Bucha’s residents emerged last week, the Russian grandmaster – and serial Vladimir Putin apologist – Sergey Karjakin was asked for his response. “Have you seen the pictures, Sergey?” the questioner probed on social media. “The senseless killings of innocent people. Men, women and children. Tortured by the Russian army. Bound hands behind their backs, and shot in the back of the head. Have you seen it, Sergey?”Karjakin, who represented Ukraine until 2009 before transferring his allegiance to Russia, had indeed seen the images. And his reply was chilling. “I wanted to say...
The Kyiv Death Match of 1942 has resonance in the present context of conflict but its significance is complexJosef Kordik was sitting in a cafe in Kyiv when a bedraggled man on the street caught his eye. That, he was sure, was Myklova Trusevych, the great Dynamo goalkeeper. He rushed outside. It was spring 1942, a few months after the city had fallen to the Nazis.Kordik was a Moravian who had been left behind after fighting for Austria-Hungary in the first world war. He had not enjoyed his new life and watching football had been his only joy, but the occupation had meant opportunity. He had falsely claimed Volksdeutsch status and been installed as manager of Bakery Number 1. Continue...
Gareth Southgate has built an England team to challenge the old, misguided narrative created by previous failuresWe’re not creative enough. We’re not positive enough. We’ll go on getting bad results, getting bad results, getting bad results.An interesting thing about years of hurt and all those oh-so-nears. When the lyrics to the great and apparently inexhaustible Three Lions were written, England had played only seven proper tournaments since they’d actually won the World Cup. Just one of those had been anything close to a near-miss. Related: Revitalised Harry Kane turns England into powerful attacking machine | Barney Ronay Related: England played like a dream but this is reality for Southgate's assured side | Jonathan Liew Continue reading...
Lightly carrying the weight of expectation, Harry Maguire and his teammates defeated Ukraine with surreal ease in RomeWhen did it start getting weird for you? Perhaps it was the moment when the German referee committed the ultimate act of patronising mercy: ending the game on 90 minutes, without injury time. Perhaps it was when Gareth Southgate executed an effortless triple substitution midway through the second half, thus sealing this game’s noncompetitive exhibition status. Perhaps it was when Jordan Henderson – no, really, Jordan Henderson – scored his first ever international goal to put England 4-0 up in a major tournament quarter-final and celebrated with the impromptu fist-pump of a man who, if we’re going to be brutally honest, hadn’t remotely...
The draw makes meeting Russia unlikely, but Andriy Shevchenko’s united squad have a clear sense of purpose reflected in the political symbol on their bright yellow kitLaw four of Fifa’s 2020-21 Laws of the Game is explicit: “Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images.” It seems straightforward enough. Nothing political.But of course, everything is political. A minute’s silence is political. Taking the knee is political – although not in the sense it heralds the Marxist apocalypse, as some of the more ludicrous pundits and spokespeople have suggested – and so is not taking the knee. Wearing a poppy is political, and so is not wearing a poppy. That’s especially so when national teams are...