Foreign secretary Liz Truss has called on English clubs to boycott the Champions League final - should they make it - amid the escalating crisis between Russia and Ukraine.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has sparked widespread condemnation internationally with his decision to send troops into the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in recent days.
The Champions League final is set to take place on St Petersburg in May with European football’s governing body Uefa now in talks over potentially switching the venue elsewhere.
Boris Johnson backed calls for the game to be taken away from Russia on Tuesday with Ms Truss echoing the sentiment on Wednesday before going further to suggest clubs should refuse to play if the game remains as planned.
"I think it is wrong at this stage with what Russia is doing internationally to have the final there," she told the BBC.
Asked if English clubs should boycott the game she added: “That's a matter for the team but if I was a player, which is a very unlikely eventuality, I certainly wouldn't want to be part of that.”
The situation between the two countries now makes it virtually certain the fixture will be moved, with the governing body having been monitoring the situation since last week.
Even before you get to the many political pressures and real-world consequences of two Uefa member countries being in conflict, there is likely to be the logistical issues of fans being banned by their countries from travelling to Russia.
Uefa now sees a contingency plan as essential, although there aren’t yet any concrete suggestions about venues. It is seen as unlikely, however, that the 2023 final could be brought forward from Istanbul, say, if two English clubs were involved.
Manchester City's Oleksandr Zinchenko captained Ukraine at Euro 2020 last summer and has pushed back at Putin's assertion that regions Donetsk and Luhansk are independent states.
“My country belongs to Ukrainians and no one will ever be able to appropriate it,” he wrote on Instagram. “We will not give it away. I can’t stand back and [not] put my point across. The whole civilised world is concerned about the situation in my country.
"The country in which I was born and raised and of which the colours of I defend [represent] in the international sports arena. The country we are trying to glorify and develop. A country whose borders must remain intact.”
