FIFA says talks of boycott of 2018 World Cup in Russia is 'nonsense'

FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke has said that a boycott of the 2018 World Cup in Russia would be nonsense.

Some European politicians suggested European countries could boycott the World Cup over the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which many Western governments accuse Russia of provoking.

Valcke said that talk of a boycott was an attempt to provoke discord rather than to be realistic on what the world is nowadays, Stuff.co.nz reported.

Speaking after meeting the Russian World Cup organisers in Sochi, Valcke said that the World Cup was a sporting event and had nothing to do with politics.

Valcke was the first senior FIFA official to visit Russia since last week's publication of a report by the world football governing body's ethics judge Joachim Eckert that closed the probe of the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bidding contests, the report added.