Darijo Srna: "We feel that we are fighting not only against Russia, but also against FIFA"

Shakhtar Donetsk director of football Darijo Srna expressed his opinion about the FIFA leadership in an interview with The Guardian.

Dario Srna

“The whole world helps Ukraine, but FIFA does not help in football. These are their duties and they do nothing. What they did to us is wrong. They will destroy us. We are not asking for money that does not belong to us: we want to protect a club that has made 17 appearances in the Champions League group stage.

We want them to defend the UPL, but we feel that we are fighting not only against Russia, but also against FIFA. They act like they don't care. We are too small for them. We restored our league on our own. We lost only 2 top division clubs: Desna and Mariupol. All the rest survived. Can you imagine that FIFA is watching all this, when people are dying and football players are playing under bombs - but doing nothing?

We all watched the 2022 World Cup: on the one hand, you see smiling people in Qatar, a well-organized tournament and a high level of football, and on the other hand, they do not allow President Zelensky to speak before the final with a message about what is happening. I invite them to Ukraine for a few days. I want to show them everything, I want to help them feel it a little. After that, perhaps they will understand that we deserve protection,” Srna said.