Russia: Should England boycott the World Cup?

[Wymsey]

After the fall out between the two countries increasing after the Salisbury incident, is it a good idea for England to still go over there?

 

I currently have mixed feelings, both politically and on-the-pitch, but leaning towards yes slightly as it'll give the young players good experience in coping with potential hostile environments etc.

 

Can imagine some of the fans, if tickets have been purchased already, quite regretting getting them over safety fears etc.

Edited 15 March 2018 by Wymeswold fox
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[a_k_b]

In my opinion politics and sport should not mix, on the other hand it would probably save us the embarrassment of not getting out of the group stages

[walkerleeds]

Nah. I've backed Harry Maguire to start England's first game at 15/8.

[Nalis]

Voted No but have changed my mind. 

 

England's place should be handed to Norn Iron (shameless from me I know) due to 'that' penalty in Belfast despite Switzerland being all over us in both games.

[VLC86]

Nope, fans will have already paid good money for the chance to get murdered in Nizny Norogrod.

[Craig]

5 minutes ago, Wymeswold fox said:

After the fall out between the two countries increasing after the Salisbury incident, is it a good idea for England to still go over there?

 

I currently have mixed feelings, both politically and on-the-pitch, but leaning towards yes slightly as it'll give the young players good experience in coping with potential hostile environments etc.

 

Can imagine some of the fans, if tickets have been purchased already, quite regretting hettong them over safety fears etc.

I've got tickets and travel booked for the Belgium game.

 

Whilst I'm feeling a little uncomfortable at the moment, there's plenty of time for things to simmer down (or escalate...).

 

By the time we reach the third game we'll have an idea as to how things are likely to go, so I'm just going to play it by ear. 

 

No need to boycott it at present.

[RoboFox]

The players will boycott the World Cup by putting in a series of piss-poor performances against lesser teams in the group stages, and exit the tournament with a whimper at the first stage.

 

That'll show 'em.

Edited 15 March 2018 by RoboFox

[foxy boxing]

If i was the England players and staff i'd be very careful what i ate and drank and always have security in your rooms and never leave anything unattended. it's better to prepare and be safe but if the Russians want to do something they will try. 

[VLC86]

20 minutes ago, Craig said:

I've got tickets and travel booked for the Belgium game.

 

Whilst I'm feeling a little uncomfortable at the moment, there's plenty of time for things to simmer down (or escalate...).

 

By the time we reach the third game we'll have an idea as to how things are likely to go, so I'm just going to play it by ear. 

 

No need to boycott it at present.

You should be alright in Kaliningrad if anywhere you would have thought.

 

Mega jealous, I have been checking the FIFA website since the tickets came back on sale to see if I can get one for this but they have only flashed up once.

[Finnegan]

There are many human rights reasons to avoid a Russian tournament as there were a Chinese one. 

 

Russia, Qatar and China holding major events over the last few years certainly bodes well for the Pyongyang Olympics and the Zimbabwe World Cup. 

 

But should we because of this spy incident? Probably not. Its just a load of posturing. 

[surrifox]

happy to be proved wrong but a FIFA event corruptly obtained and staged by a kleptocracy sounds like a formula for sporting hell. Factor in racist and homophobic football crowds and it all sounds utterly marvellous

[hairy]

It would save the disappointment if we didnt go

[Footballwipe]

As silly as it sounds, pulling the football team out of the World Cup is one way to seal political suicide. Not only that but likely cause (small) economic harm to the country with the increase in food/drinks from watching England games and generally take the wind out of a summer millions of people are anticipating.

[Dan]

They shouldn't, but they should for Qatar on footballing grounds although this whole "we're building for 2022" rhetoric hints that won't be happening.

[stripeyfox]

England have agreed to compromise. They will go to the World Cup but will walk out and boycott it after the group stage..

[spacemunky]

Let's go and win it! That'll show 'em! 

[Guest]

What a stupid idea. If we boycotted events with every country we'd had a run-in with we'd be far more isolated than South Africa were during aparthied or maybe North Korea now. 

 

If you'd have said because of their human rights record and abuse of LGBT etc... maybe it'd have been a better argument.

 

Really it's not even that big of a deal to me personally.

Edited 15 March 2018 by Guest

[Foxxed]

We're a team that sometimes reaches the last 16 or quarters. On our own the political message would be a bit damp. We'd need to use our diplomacy to convince teams like the Germany, Brazil, France, Spain to boycott it too. Then it would actually mean something. But it's a sad state of affairs when political diplomacy and economics alone cannot resolve a dispute.

[ajthefox]

The bbc asked a Tory MP (forget his name) about this on breakfast on Tuesday morning and it was a bit of wtf moment for me.

 

I'm getting sick of hearing about Russia and I just think avoiding the world cup because of spy shenanigans would be a stupid and frankly pointless thing to do.

 

Any link to foreign policy is tenuous and what would it achieve anyway? Do people really think Putin will give a flying fvck if we aren't at the world cup? I'm curious to hear an explanation from anyone who thinks this is a good idea.

[Saxondale]

All nations should be boycotting it because they should never have been awarded it. I would have loved it if the qualified teams had organised their own tournament separately.

[Buce]

 

I think there is probably an argument for warning fans against travelling. A lot of anti-British hysteria will be whipped up between now and then.

[MPH]

What would boycotting it achieve? You think Russia would stop doing what they are doing?

 

 

 

I'm never keen when sports and politics mix... 

[MPH]

2 minutes ago, Buce said:

 

I think there is probably an argument for warning fans against travelling. A lot of anti-British hysteria will be whipped up between now and then.

 

 

And Russian football fans are well known for wanting to settle differences over a game of tiddlywinks.

[Captain...]

6 minutes ago, BornBlue said:

All nations should be boycotting it because they should never have been awarded it. I would have loved it if the qualified teams had organised their own tournament separately.

Agree, it should have been boycotted the second it was awarded due to the clear corruption in the vote. Same as Qatar, dodgy vote, dodgy regime, dodgy human rights record, country not set up to host a major sporting event, myriad safety concerns.

 

Some stuff about a former spy is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things considering what has been going on in Chechnya and Crimea and all this meddling in elections. If this is the straw the breaks he camel’s back then fair enough, but we’ve let them get away with so much on an international scale I don’t see us standing up to them any time soon.

[Jordan]

1 hour ago, Foxxed said:

 On our own the political message would be a bit damp. 

The rest of the UK decided to boycott the World Cup a few months ago, so you wouldn't be going it alone.