18 December – FIFA apologizes to the Ukrainian FA for displaying a map in the European section of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers that excludes Russian-occupied Crimea from the country’s territory.
After Ukraine protested the mistake, FIFA initially admitted the error without any regrets.
But its chief member association officer, Elkhan Mammadov, has since written: “We fully understand the delicate sensitivity of this matter and, while the incident was unintentional, we sincerely regret any concern it may have caused.”
Mammadov explained that the map was provided by an external supplier and that FIFA is reviewing how to “ensure that such oversights do not recur in the future”.
Ukraine was one of 54 national teams in Friday’s draw for the European qualifying group.
Russia, banned from FIFA competitions since its military invasion of Ukraine, has illegally occupied Crimea since 2014. The peninsula was not colored as part of Ukraine’s territory in a graphic broadcast during the draw event at FIFA headquarters.
Ukraine was drawn in a qualifying group with either France or Croatia, Iceland and Azerbaijan.
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