FIFA postpones Ukraine playoff, gives Poland a bye vs Russia

GENEVA (AP) — Amid a shutdown of domestic soccer during the invasion by Russia, FIFA agreed Tuesday to Ukraine’s request to postpone the national team’s World Cup qualifying playoff in Scotland in two weeks’ time.

FIFA also awarded Poland a bye through its playoff semifinal against Russia that was also scheduled on March 24. That decision will be tested by an urgent Russian appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport against a FIFA ban on its national teams.

FIFA said it will now organize the Scotland-Ukraine game in June during the next fixture dates protected for national teams.

The delay became likely when the Ukraine Premier League shut down after the Russian military invasion on Feb. 24.

Ukraine cited “the impossibility of organizing both the travel and training of a team under the current circumstances,” FIFA said in a statement.

Most of the Ukraine squad is typically drawn from domestic clubs Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar Donetsk. They were unable to resume games on Feb. 26 after a midwinter break and most of their players from other countries left Ukraine to escape the war.

The FIFA postponement adds more uncertainty to the World Cup finals tournament draw on April 1 in Qatar.

It was already going ahead with two of the 32 entries undecided because of a fixture backlog during the COVID-19 pandemic. An intercontinental playoff round had to be pushed back to June.

The draw in Doha should now have only 29 confirmed teams with the playoff bracket featuring Scotland, Ukraine, Wales and Austria now stalled.

Ukraine was to face Scotland in a single-game playoff semifinal in Glasgow. The winner was to play at Wales or Austria five days later for a ticket to Qatar. The Wales-Austria game will go ahead on March 24.

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