How will Russia’s invasion of Ukraine affect the sports industry? 

The matter also concerns Sweden and the Czech Republic, who could face Russia in Moscow in the play-off final, Reuters reported. And there are doubts whether Ukraine’s World Cup play-off match against Scotland in Glasgow will go ahead as planned on 24 March. 

Ukraine Premier League

Ukraine’s domestic football league was meant to restart on Friday after the post-winter break. But now matches have been paused for a minimum of 30 days. “After the imposition of martial law in Ukraine, the championship draw has been suspended,” the league said in a statement. 

Dynamo Kyiv, one of Ukraine’s biggest clubs, “proclaimed their resistance” to the invasion, the Irish Independent said. “We are on our land, and we will not give it to anyone,” the club stated. “For us – the truth, for us victory! We will definitely win, and Ukrainians from Uzhgorod to Lugansk, from Chernihiv to Sevastopol will be proud that they are citizens of a great state called Ukraine.”

The F1 Russian Grand Prix takes place at the Sochi Autodrom

Mark Thompson/Getty Images

F1 Russian Grand Prix 

This year’s Russian Grand Prix is not scheduled to take place until 25 September, but Formula 1 has said it is “closely watching the very fluid developments and at this time has no further comment on the race”.

The page selling tickets for the event disappeared from the official F1 website, the BBC reported. This led to speculation that the race “will be cancelled and replaced by one at Turkey’s Istanbul Park”. However, F1 said this was a development issue with the website and “nothing deliberate”.

Invasions and the Olympics

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine comes just a few days after the end of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. Many thought the Russians would not take any action until after the games were over – and that was “to avoid upstaging China”, said ​​NPR’s Frank Langfitt. 

The “distraction” of the Olympic Games has “been an ingredient” in Putin’s aggressive foreign policy in recent years, said Tim Fernholz on Quartz. “In other words, it’s a great time to invade somewhere else.”

There’s certainly “some history” involving Russia’s military action and the Olympics, CNN reported ahead of Beijing 2022. When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, it occurred just as the Winter Olympics in Sochi were wrapping up and in 2008 Russia invaded Georgia when the Summer Olympics were happening. 

Putin has spent three of the last eight Olympic Games either “invading a country or coming awfully close to doing so”, said Michael Rosenberg on Sports Illustrated. The timing in Ukraine was “probably coincidental” – it is hard to believe Putin would think the world would let him invade a country because it is “so distracted by the bobsled, or if you prefer: the bobsleigh”. Rosenberg added: “This does not bode well for my book proposal, The Art of War During Bobsled/Bobsleigh”.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/sport/955882/russia-invasion-ukraine-impact-sports-industry