Why playing Belarus, co-aggressor in Ukraine, doesn't sit well with India

Belarus, fellow aggressor in the Ukraine invasion, in the football friendly at Bahrain on Saturday? One is still not sure where to stand on this. The Indian national team, ranked 104 in the world, is generally so starved of any international action that anything that comes its way is welcome, and thus the mind says, 'Go ahead, in any case sports and politics shouldn't mix.' But the heart tugs you back to our time-tested, perhaps forgotten concepts of solidarity.

India coach Igor Stimac, a former Croatian international who himself would have witnessed conflict in the 1990s Yugoslav war, and his team have been granted two friendlies – hosts Bahrain and Belarus on a neutral venue – as preparation for the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers starting in June this year. In another world, this would have meant invaluable exposure and can still prove to be, but also these are different times.

A slew of sporting sanctions and boycotts are staring hard at both Russia and Belarus. The international sporting community has swiftly banned Russia from most sporting arenas, they are still a little lenient with Belarus despite their clear complicity in the invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

The UEFA, football's European governing body, has ruled that Belarus cannot host any matches but can play on neutral venues, in this case Bahrain, and even when they do, no fans will be allowed to attend. Does this tiny legalese offer India that little window of validation then to play Saturday's friendly guilt-free? Does the dire need for footballing engagement outweigh our once-famed moral standing over war, conflict, occupation, apartheid? Or is geo-politics only a matter of present-day convenience? This is only a friendly, a match of little consequence for