England could reportedly be "thrown out of the 2022 World Cup" if it boycotts this summer’s tournament over the "attempted murder of a former Russian spy in Salisbury," according to the Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. Pressure is mounting on the U.K. Government to order Manager Gareth Southgate’s side to withdraw from the World Cup if Vladimir Putin "is found to have been behind the the nerve-agent attack" that has left Sergei Skripal and his daughter fighting for their lives, put a police officer in intensive care and "resulted in a further 18 people needing medical treatment." A boycott would risk breaching FIFA's tournament regulations, which dictate that "all participating member associations undertake to play all of their matches until eliminated from the Fifa World Cup." Article 6 of those regulations "states that any association that withdraws" could face sanctions, "including the expulsion of the association concerned from subsequent Fifa competitions." U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson "raised the spectre of a boycott on Tuesday," and although sources close to Johnson "subsequently claimed he was talking about officials and dignitaries and not Southgate and his players," other MPs have "cranked up the pressure on the Government to order a complete withdrawal" (TELEGRAPH, 3/9).
NOT WORTH IT: In London, Joe Bernstein reported former FA Chair Greg Dyke said that the governing body "should defy any call" for England to boycott the World Cup in Russia. Dyke said that the FA "should defy the Government, just as the British Olympic Association did" in '80. The BOA ignored a request from then-PM Margaret Thatcher to boycott the Moscow Olympics following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. FA President Prince William "is said to have no plans to attend and it is likely that no Government ministers will go if a link is proved" (DAILY MAIL, 3/10).
STAYING OUT OF HARM'S WAY: Rumsby also reported Anthony Glees, head of the University of Buckingham’s Centre for Security & Intelligence Studies, said that any retaliation "must include a World Cup boycott to be credible." And he warned that, if it did not, "the England team would be at the mercy" of Putin. Glees: "If Putin was involved and this were to go ahead, the team would be putting themselves in harm’s way. ... We cannot let the Russians regard the United Kingdom as a place where they can come and kill people with impunity" (TELEGRAPH, 3/9).
