March 7 – Boris Johnson, the UK’s colourful foreign secretary with a reputation for outspoken – occasionally outlandish – comments, has caused something of a diplomatic storm by appearing to suggest that England could withdraw from the World Cup in retaliation for Russia’s suspected poisoning of a former double agent on British soil.
Johnson said if Moscow was found to be responsible for the health of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, that as part of moves to “bring Russia to heel” it would be “very difficult to see how, thinking ahead to the World Cup this July to imagine that UK representation at that event could go ahead in the normal way. We will certainly have to consider that.”
Sky Sports analyst Gary Neville, the former England and Manchester United defender, immediately condemned Johnson’s comments, saying on Twitter: ‘He’s a useless fool! Why bring football into it?’
The Foreign Office quickly put out a trouble-shooting statement insisting Johnson was not referring to players but to officials, politicians and dignitaries attending the finals which start on June 14.
Skripal and his daughter Yulia were discovered critically ill on a park bench in the English town of Salisbury at the weekend. Their case, which has made headline news, has been compared with the suspicious death in London in 2006 of former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
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