MOSCOW, 26 Feb. The Swedish national team refused to play a possible play-off with the team Russia for the right to participate in the World Cup in Qatar, regardless of where the meeting will take place, according to the website of the Swedish Football Association (SvFF). The Russian team is to play against Poland on March 24 in Moscow in the semi-finals of the play-off tournament. In the other semi-final, the teams of Sweden and the Czech Republic will meet. The winner of the tournament will qualify for the World Championship, which will be held from November 21 to December 18 in Qatar. «The leadership of the SvFF has decided that the Swedish team will not play a possible match of «butts» against the Russian team, regardless of where the match will take place. The federation also calls FIFA to cancel the March play-off matches in which the Russian team participates,» the message says. Earlier, the President of the Polish Football Association (PZPN), Cesar Kulesza, said that the Polish national team did not intend to play a play-off against the Russian team due to the situation between Russia and Ukraine. On Thursday, the national teams of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic made a joint announcement that they did not intend to play qualification matches for the 2022 World Cup in Russia due to the aggravation of Russian-Ukrainian relations.
