Jiránek: Sanctions against Russia? Politics and sport shouldn’t mix, unfortunately it’s spilling over into sport today

The war in Ukraine has affected the whole world, not including the sporting world. Russian teams have been massively excluded from European competitions, and Russian athletes have also been affected. However, Martin Jiránek does not entirely agree.

The former stopper spent 10 years in Russia. He played for Spartak Moscow, Akhmat and Tomsk. Jiránek has only the best memories of his engagement in the biggest country in the world, he also played European Cups with Spartak and became captain.

So how does he perceive the current situation? As part of the pressure on the Russian Federation and President Vladimir Putin, massive sanctions are being introduced against Russian teams and individual athletes.

“Politics and sport should not mix, unfortunately today is such a time that this is being transferred to sport. Of course, the situation is difficult, it’s terrible, but I wouldn’t mix it into sport,” Jiránek said on Sport’s Premier Class.

“In Russia, they look at it the way they look at it. They know they can’t play cups now and they don’t know what the future holds. About 40 players have left Russia and in the summer they will decide what to do next. Now they’re looking at whether or not they’ll even be able to play European Cups next year. There is uncertainty and they don’t know what will happen, ” the former national defender said.

At the same time, he thinks that for the players, the engagement in Russia is a job and it is difficult to leave from one day to the next, although the situation is what it is.

But the Russian league continues and with it Jan Kuchta, who plays for Lokomotiv Moscow. He was on the pitch in the second half of the 1:4 defeat to FK Rostov at the weekend.

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