FIFA President Gianni Infantino said on Monday that football's world governing body should lift its ban on Russia from participating in international tournaments.
Russia was banned from participating in international football tournaments by FIFA immediately after its invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022. The ban has remained in place, although age-group teams have been allowed to compete since 2023.
“We have to do it,” Infantino told Sky News in an interview, when asked if he would consider lifting the ban. “I’m against bans, I’m against boycotts as well,” he added, saying they just “create more hatred.”
It would send a positive message for "girls and boys from Russia" to participate in football tournaments across Europe, he said.
Infantino maintains close ties with US President Donald Trump and has awarded him the newly created FIFA Peace Prize, widely seen as a symbolic honour after the US president failed to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, despite campaigning strongly for it, in December.
FIFA also opened an office in Trump Tower in New York in July and appointed Trump's daughter, Ivanka, to the board of an educational charity project co-funded by 2026 World Cup ticket sales.
The US is hosting the World Cup this summer alongside Mexico and Canada and has faced calls for a boycott from some political and social circles due to the Trump administration's foreign policy.
Russia hosted the tournament in 2018.
