weekend, that fifa had rejected or rebuffed their offer to put out a video, a recorded message from volodymyr zelenskyy, the ukrainian president, talking about that general urging peace, you know, to these millions of fans that would have been watching the final around the world. fifa haven t responded to that at the moment. but what the ukrainians tell me is they were told by fifa the message was too political. something the leadership of fifa didn t want to put across on the world cup final. ukrainians, though, pushing back, saying, look, fifa shouldn t be frightened about putting a message of peace out in what is meant to be a celebration of peace through the world cup. nations can prove that they re who s the strongest on the playing field, instead of on the battlefield that was the general message of zelenskyy s address. the game has happened, it s
qualified for the knockout stages and germany failed to reach the last 16 for the second tournament running. jane dougall reports. commentator: let s see here. this is it. oh, it s gone. that s what most people thought, but play was allowed to continue and japan scored the winner against spain, ultimately putting germany out of the competition. social media instantly lit up with debate. did the ball cross the line, and does the angle of the camera affect perspective? there was a lengthy var check which determined the ball was in play. goal! but fifa haven t provided a definitive image. they said this morning the goalline technology camera was used but that an animated graphic was not available. every angle i ve seen, nearly every camera, every video i ve seen, the ball was over the line, unless you go to a bird s eye view where you come down on it and you see some part of the ball that s on the line.
and what more can we expect as they lead up to the game on tuesday? reporter: yeah. the match against iran and the u.s. was always played against a political backdrop, wasn t it? but the u.s. men s national team very much put that brought that to the fore on sunday with that decision on social media to post the iranian flag without the symbol of the iranian republic. they did it as they said in support of women in iran fighting for basic human rights in the midst of the political turmoil and unrest. they ve said it s very much just a move for 24 hours. and only via the social media platforms, not other platforms. but iran, for their part, via state media have called for the usa to be kicked out of the world cup, to be given a ten match ban. fifa haven t commented yet.
and belarusian athletes from competition is figure skating it s an event russia would ve hoped to dominate at the world championships in france later this month. but skating s governing body the isu now says athletes from those two countries won t be invited. it comes just weeks after russia s kamila valieva competed at the winter olympics, despite failing a drugs test. yesterday, football suspended russia from all its international competitions, including the women s euros this summer and the men s world cup. fifa haven t yet announced how the knockout format for this month s qualification play offs will change with russia now out of the competition. they were due to play poland in the semi finals, which take place between the 24th and 28th of march. meanwhile, one of russia s best supported club sides has said they re upset by the decision to remove them from the europa league. spartak moscow have been kicked out of the tournament with their last 16 opponents rb leipzig given a bye