FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
The head of European football's governing body, Aleksander Ceferin, said the suffering of civilians caused by Israel's war in Gaza had deeply affected him, but he believes players and teams should not face ineffective competition bans due to conflicts caused by national leaders.
Europe's most powerful soccer boss denounced "reckless politicians" for inciting the "massacre" of children around the world and defended a "Stop the Killing of Children" banner recently displayed by his organization, UEFA, which sparked backlash from both pro-Israel and Palestinian hardline groups.
"Look, first of all, what is happening to the civilians there hurts me personally, it kills me," Ceferin said of Gaza.
He added that from another perspective, I am not a supporter of banning athletes.
"What can an athlete do to his government to stop the war? It's very, very difficult. Now, the ban for Russian teams is, I think, three and a half years. Did the war in Ukraine stop? It didn't stop," Ceferin said.
UEFA banned Russian clubs and national teams from its competitions in February 2022, four days after the full-scale occupation of Moscow began.
Ceferin, speaking from his temporary office at Monaco's luxury Le Méridien Beach Plaza hotel, sharply criticized leaders around the world, in some of the harshest remarks by any sports leader about the geopolitical turmoil rocking the planet.
"I can't understand how a politician who can do so much to stop the massacre, wherever it is, can sleep while seeing all the children and all the civilians dead," he said.
UEFA, the influential governing body of European football, faced a storm of criticism during the Super Cup match in mid-August over a banner designed to highlight atrocities against civilians and children.
As the Middle East is at a boiling point, some Israeli supporters criticized the slogan "Stop killing children, stop killing civilians" as a favor to Hamas propaganda; while pro-Palestinian groups said it did not go far enough in condemning Israel for its attack on Gaza.
Ceferin is convinced that UEFA was raising a global humanitarian point, not a political one, with its slogan, and he hit back at its critics.
"We have a UEFA foundation for children. We don't live on another planet. We live in this world. And when you see children dying all over the world because of it, it's a diplomatic statement, if I may say so, by reckless politicians. Anyone who thinks that 'Stop killing children, stop killing civilians' is a political message, for me they are idiots," Ceferin said. /Adapted from Politico/
Lini një Përgjigje