{"id":199698,"date":"2022-02-26T10:22:31","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T11:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=199698"},"modified":"2022-02-26T21:57:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-26T21:57:08","slug":"poland-refuses-to-play-russia-in-wc-qualifier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=199698","title":{"rendered":"Poland refuses to play Russia in WC qualifier"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poland is refusing to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Polish football federation president said.<\/p>\n

Cezary Kulesza made the announcement on Twitter and indicated Poland was in talks with other federations to present a unified position to FIFA.<\/p>\n

"No more words, time to act!" Kulesza wrote, saying the move was prompted by the "escalation of the aggression".<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/twitter.com\/lewy_official\/status\/1497500343726452744?s=20&t=WMHFiYdXSW3LShO2VSY1Xw<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n

Poland striker Robert Lewandowski, the nation's all-time leading scorer, immediately responded to say it was the "right decision".<\/p>\n

"I can't imagine playing a match with the Russian national team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues," the Bayern Munich star said on Twitter.<\/p>\n

"Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can't pretend that nothing is happening."<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Embiid, 76ers stars thrilled after dazzling Harden debut<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> LeBron and Lakers fume over 'total BS' review call<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n

Previously, Poland had only said it didn't want to play the qualifying play-off semi-final in Moscow on March 24.<\/p>\n

The winner will play Sweden or the Czech Republic for a place at the Qatar World Cup.<\/p>\n

Russian troops pressed toward Ukraine's capital on Saturday, after a night of explosions and street fighting that sent Kyiv residents seeking shelter underground.<\/p>\n

\"Helpless<\/p>\n

It was not immediately clear how far Russian troops had advanced.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian officials reported some success in fending off assaults, but fighting persisted near the capital.<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Poland is refusing to play its World Cup qualifier against Russia next month in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Polish football federation president […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199698"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199700,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199698\/revisions\/199700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}