XtraTime Web Desk: FIFA have warned Croatian player Domagoj Vida for celebrating Saturday’s World Cup quarter-final win over Russia by making comments about Ukraine in a video posted online.
The defender Vida shouted “glory to Ukraine” in the video before former Croatian player Ognjen Vukojevic said “this win is for Dynamo and Ukraine … go Croatia.”
The pair played together at Dynamo Kiev. Croatia meet England in the semi-finals on Wednesday with Vida, having only been warned, not at risk of suspension.
Russia currently faces international sanctions over the country’s role in the Ukraine conflict. The sanctions were first adopted in July 2014 following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its support for separatists in the country’s east.
Vida, who left Dynamo in 2017, told Russian portal sports.ru it had “nothing to do with politics” and was rather a joke for friends.