Zelenskyy's World Cup address 'banned' by FIFA: Ukrainian ambassador
A pre-recorded address from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that was set to be played at the World Cup final Sunday was purportedly cut by the soccer tournament's governing body, FIFA, according to Ukrainian officials.
The office of the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States told ABC News on Sunday that Zelenskyy's speech did not air to the audience at the championship match between Argentina and France because "at the very last moment it was banned by FIFA."
FIFA has not confirmed whether it forbid the airing of Zelenskyy's speech at the match in Qatar that was won by Argentina.
In the one-minute and 43-second speech sent to ABC News by the ambassador's office, Zelenskyy praised the World Cup tournament as a "common victory, the celebration of the human spirit."
"The World Cup proved time and again that different countries and nationalities can decide who is the strongest in fairplay...," Zelensky said.
He added, "This is the dream of so many people when players compete, making everybody enjoy peace," he said. "Every father would like to take his son to the football match all over the world. Every mother would like her son to be back from the war."
Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine has proposed a "peace formula" for ending the war with Russia that he said is "absolutely fair."
"We offered it because there are no champions in war, there can be no draw," he said.
He ended the speech by inviting all countries to participate in a global peace summit that he has proposed for this winter.




