An article from news.com.au on 13 March, 2018,, author(s) listed as Debra Killalea. Full story in the link

Too hard to format the article. So I'll just leave the link.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/sergei-skripal-fifa-world-cup-boycott-looms-amid-russias-spy-scandal/news-story/f60f604aaae5c03e32043489dde297ab

I highly doubt there'll be any meaningful boycott less than 3 months from D-Day (i.e. teams not going). But, if Russia is found to be involved in this disgrace, then it would probably be fitting if all HMG officials are forbidden from attending, same goes for Australian Government officials and a coalition of like-minded nations who actually will do something.

Yeah, can't imagine teams not showing up, too much money involved, but politicians is doable. Side note: it's sad that every time an authoritarian government gets criticised, they always claim it's a western plot to besmirch their good reputation. American movies give them too much credit, these guys are un-creative as fuck.

I keep hearing boycotts and bribes but nothing happens?

If there was a team boycott, it would surely have to be led by the UK (so England). But Theresa May's government has a really narrow majority in the House of Commons.

I reckon she'd think it politically stupid to attempt to prevent England from playing. Boris Johnson might well exert some pressure. But I'd be staggered if May's government tried it and risked losing her majority. The whole Brexit thing has divided the country enough, this would be extra fuel being added to the fire. Too great risk of going to a general election, Labour winning that and Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM very soon.

But there are other things she definitely can do without risking her majority. And I wholeheartedly hope that our government supports those measures.

Honestly, I think that's the whole idea. They're sending out a very clear message- if you betray us, we will find you, anywhere in the world, no matter who's protecting you and we will kill you.

The Kremlin can fall back on plausible deniability (as they've done with electoral interference). From a legal perspective, it ends up being impossible to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that they're responsible. And, the British justice system (and ours) opposes any conviction which doesn't meet that standard of proof. And that's a good thing.

But because it's a Russian nerve agent it's obvious as fark who did it. If they wanted to carry out an assassination and leave other states doubtful, they could. But the Kremlin does not want to do that. They want everybody to know it was them. They want to use the West's laws and customs against them. Putin is laughing at May in her face and she can't respond in the way she wants. It's about humiliation for Britain and intimidation for those whom they think of as traitors.

This is the Kremlin version of sticking heads on the spikes of London Bridge.

Any country that boycotts over that can go fuck itself. 

Somebody in Commons, I think it was, described it as an 'act of war'

 There's been so many crimes committed as an act of war and many much worse then this crime, so for me I'd have no respect for a hypocritical country to act all good and boycott a world cup over an allegation. 

It's obviously not quite as huge as invading Ukraine or furnishing your sponsored-militia with weaponry which is then used to bring down a commercial aircraft (except for the poor individuals who got poisoned, depending on the how bad it ends up for them). But one crime after another after another after another without adequate punishment can, rightly, be interpreted as the final straw.

I don't agree with anything you said that was brought to you via fake news. 
America bombed Iraq and killed hundreds pig thousands of people for nothing. And it was proven that Iraq co-operated and proved they had no WMD yet still got invaded. 
I didn't see any of these countries crying then did I. Or maybe it's because it's okay to invade countries and kill people for nothing depending on who those people are. 
Seriously fuck our fake news I wish Australia had a leader like Putin over the flop we currently have and have had in the past. 

Fake news. Yep.

Plenty of us opposed the War in Iraq (funnily enough, often the type of people who get pissed off about Russian extrajudicial killings). For what it's worth, I also think that throughout the twentieth century, much of the behaviour of British governments throughout the Empire and Australian governments with respect to Indigenous Australians was immoral and criminal. That's worth fighting against.

But does that somehow mean that the British Government (and Australian Government) had no right to oppose Hitler's invasion of Poland because the British Government and the Australian Government also had blood on their hands?

 Yeh pretty much. Don't point fingers especially if you're just as guilty or even worse. 
Forget Hitler and any world war, focus on something small like what Putin supposedly did by killing a traitor. Can you honestly say America as an example hasn't done the same?
Just during the US elections recently someone got killed supposedly by the Clintons which was pretty obvious the hit came from them. 
No mainstream media chose to mention it. What I'm basically saying is that these things happens all the time. Mainstream media will keep talking about the one incident that they want to promote while refusing to mention an exact similar crime committed by the same people they're protecting. 
Any country if given a chance would kill one of their own traitors, it's as simple as that. 

I know full well the US have bumped plenty of people off. As far as I'm concerned, drone strikes are usually a case of just that.

You and I will probably have to agree to disagree on whether the list of Russia's crimes are just examples of 'fake news'. So, as it appears we do not agree on the underlying premise of culpability, our overall opinions about 'finger pointing' in the face of such grave crimes are obviously going to differ. As far as I'm concerned, given the Russian Federation's track record (assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, Chechnya, etc.) it was farcical that FIFA gifted them privilege of hosting a World Cup.

Banning South Africa from sporting events genuinely helped to end Apartheid. So the notion of rewarding Russian ultra-nationalism is absurd. Then when, as all reliable military intelligence and scholarship has it, the Russian Federation invaded Crimea and was a party to the downing of a commercial aircraft, that should have been the final straw. During the last World Cup, they should have just said, right that's way too far.

As punishment, England can host the World Cup. This is just more of the same.

I've watched enough documentaries on this issue which claim most evidence doesn't in any way point the finger at Russia downing the plane.
People will always say there are two sides to every story. And most people agree with this saying, however the sad thing is that not many people go by this simple rule. 
I don't believe Russia shot down the plane at all. 
Overall I understand what you are saying about countries doing wrong not being allowed to host big events and I'd agree if only it was fair and this rule applied to everyone. The world would be a better place, however that rule doesn't apply. It's absurd that anyone would claim Russia should be stripped of their rights, yet it's okay for Qatar to win it, even though plenty evidence points to them helping out ISIS and the many other countries too who are guilty for the same crime including England themselves. 
England supported the war against Syria, even though Syria didn't do anything to deserve it and to make matters worse actually sided with the Syrian Rebels aka ISIS and AlNusra over Asad.
I won't accept any country that supported rebel terrorists groups who beheaded innocent people claim that Russia should be boycotted and the world cup given to them because Russia killed someone who betrayed them and basically was a traitor to them. 

The international inspectors were denied entry to the MH17 crash site for days and when they finally got there they observed, in their words, "industrial scale sabotage."

You find me one innocent person that interferes with a crime scene.

Reading the above posts and the ramblings therein I'm thinking robstazzz gets his news from infowars.com.

Bloody hell.

 And I'm thinking you get yours from that reliable source known as CNN.
Bloody hell.

Moon landings fake?
9-11 inside job?
Contrails?
Flat earth?

What else do you believe in?  And yes, on the balance of evidence, multiple sources, verifiable facts, cross checking by other news outlets CNN shits all over your tin foil hat wearing Alez Jones type fruit loops.

You are kidding yourself if you don't think Russia, or Russian backed agents, blew up that jet.  Jesus Christ, they caught the guy bragging about it on social media and on a phone call. 

Fake I suppose.

#SAD.


 

I think it's extremely sad you still to this day refuse to admit 9/11 was an inside job. Very sad indeed. The other bullshit you mentioned no I don't believe in at all. 
I only believe in facts. Something you're clearly oblivious to.

Yeh but I don't need to believe that lie. From what I saw, the inspectors came and on their own judgement left the scene because it was too dangerous as there was still fighting going on.
That area wasn't considered a no fly zone for no good reason. 
Explain to me why a commercial airline ( which in recent times had one of their planes missing till this day ) would choose this route when every single other airline avoided this path?
I don't trust a word that comes out of BBC, CNN, and all those garbage bullshit news channels. 
Everytime Putin is asked questions on these matters he answers them like a man. When the same questions are thrown at the politicians on the other side throwing the accusations they simply ignore the question and refuse to answer. 
Even when the actual results of the investigation came out the report itself said they had no proof who shot the plane so it could have been either side, some reports even claimed the missile that was claimed to be used couldn't reach those heights, therefore it could have been a bomb on board. 
The whole thing is clouded and it's simply wrong to point the finger and acuse someone without any evidence and pretty much nothing but speculation. 
Yet England admitted themselves that they support the rebels in Syria. That isn't fake evidence as it came from their own mouths and same with America and many other countries. This isn't speculation this is fact as they've admitted it so again what's with the finger pointing?
I'd much rather side with the man accused of poisoning someone who was proven to be a traitor to his country instead of someone who have assistance to a terrorist group taking videos of beheading innocent people, men, woman, and children. 
We're really not going to agree on much here because clearly we both have very different views on the matters but in my mind it's a evil world out there and I won't support a boycott of the Russian World Cup at all, in fact I hope it'll be a gigantic success, but I won't expect to hear about anything but negatives about it once it comes through our very own biased bullshit media we have.

Patently untrue.  Malaysian weren't the only airline flying that route.   And the route was declared safe.  But you know don't let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory.

http://theconversation.com/why-was-malaysia-airlines-flight-mh17-flying-over-ukraine-29372

And if you're wrong about such simple, verifiable facts, how can you be trusted with the dribble coming out of your mouth on any other subject?

 Hahahaha you post that article as fact. Fuck me dead!
You do realise the source right?

European air traffic control group Eurocontrol said Ukrainian authorities had closed the airspace from the ground level to 32,000 feet but the airspace at 33,000 feet, where MH17 was flying at the time it was shot down, had remained open.

Malaysia Airlines said the usual flight route was earlier declared safe by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. The International Air Transportation Association has stated that the airspace the aircraft was traversing was not subject to restrictions.

https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/malaysia-airlines-mh17-australian-expert-questions-flights-ukraine-route-20140718-zuilw.html

Plenty of other media to go to. If you don't trust BBC then don't read a Czech paper like Pravda that's for sure.

Sorry mate, there's healthy skepticism and unhealthy skepticism. You can rail against any media outlet you want. You get on to youtube, watch the video of the paramilitaries arriving first at the scene, expressing their incredulity that they shot down a civilian plane, scramble to recover the blackboxes, all in the Russian language, and just dare to think they're Russians, not Ukrainians who in a fit of confusion forgot they don't natively speak the language of their ethnic opponent.

Alternatively, there's some great journalism from the likes of Anna Politkovskaya as to what is going on within Russia and its treatment of journalism and the free flow of information. Journalists aren't murdered for writing bad fiction.

Alternatively you can see the Russian commander gloating on twitter that he just shot the plane down. Oh wait, it's deleted. Innocent people don't distance themselves from their own words.

Do you mean this?

I'm aware of that one, but no, was talking about ones with them standing in the wreckage sifting through it (not phone intercepts). 

I think you mean the one where the Russian grabbed the teddy bear from the footage right?
He did the cross and said rest in peace. 

Does he f*#k?

I don't speak Russian. Reading the translations provided (and assuming they're fair), he just flatly denies whatever he's accused of. He then leans on plausible deniability by suggesting a whole host of other potential culprits. And he often moves on to describing the victim. But you know- this guy was not such a nice guy, he did this and that, then was found guilty of embezzlement.

He could be a villain in a Shakespeare play.

This is the sort of comment that has me seriously concerned about our future as a democratic society. 

At least we can criticise our politicians. 

 There's nothing to worry about, we'll always have flops running this country if that's your wish. 

I'd rather have the flops we have now than an authoritarian dictator that murders journalists, jails opposing politicians, de-criminalises domestic violence and essentially outlaws being gay.

Perhaps you should go live in Russia if you can't appreciate how much better it is here. 

 If I could I would but it's too late and near impossible. You can't just pick which country to live in and get accepted just like that. 
I'm here to stay. Don't get all worked up because I don't rate either of our parties it's not the country I don't like it's our leaders.
I wouldn't mind if many of our journos got killed for shit stirring anyways. You either kill scum or throw the scum in jail and that's all Putin's done. 

I'm truly lost for words.