German Politicians Question Whether Russia Should Be Allowed To Host 2018 World Cup

As tensions build between Russia and the west, some German politicians are vocalizing their fears of a Russian-hosted World Cup in 2018: Taking away Russia’s right to hold the soccer tournament may have significantly stronger impact than more economic sanctions, said Michael Fuchs, deputy head of the conservative bloc in the German parliament. “Fifa should think about whether Moscow is an appropriate host if it can’t even guarantee safe airways,” Fuchs told Handelsblatt Online, adding that Germany and France could take over the tournament if needed. At this point, some even said it was "unimaginable: “If [Russian President Vladimir] Putin doesn’t actively cooperate on clearing up the plane crash, the soccer World Cup in Russia in 2018 is unimaginable,” Peter Beuth told Germany’s top-selling daily Bild. Meanwhile, Dutch officials are waiting on the investigation to conclude: “The Dutch football association is aware that a future World Cup in Russia stirs great emotion among all football fans and relatives in the Netherlands,” it said in a statement. “The association believes it is more appropriate to conduct a discussion over a future World Cup in Russia at a later moment, once the investigation into the disaster has been completed.” FIFA officials are already openly questioning whether Russia's stadiums will be ready in time: FIFA president Sepp Blatter threw an unexpected seed of doubt into Russia's preparations for the 2018 World Cup on Monday when he said that FIFA will discuss the possibility of reducing the number of stadiums to be used there in four years time. Two days after Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko gave media detailed background about Russia's plans for their World Cup which involves 12 stadiums in 11 cities, Blatter implied that they could be re-examined. If Russia does continue down such a dangerous path, why reward them with the biggest sport on the biggest stage in the world?