FIFA to Stop Selling 2018 World Cup T-Shirts of Russian Map Without Crimea

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has decided to remove from its official online store t-shirts with 2018 World Cup symbols depicting the map of Russia without Crimea, the FIFA press service said Tuesday.

KRASNODAR (Russia) (Sputnik) – A Russian lawmaker from the Communist Party, Vladimir Rodin, has sent a request to the country's government to find out why the FIFA online store sells t-shirts with 2018 World Cup symbols depicting Russia's map without Crimea.

"The t-shirts are due to be removed from the official FIFA online store in order to avoid misunderstandings," the press service told R-Sport.

From June 14 to July 15, 2018, Russia will host the FIFA World Cup for the first time in history. It will take place in 11 Russian cities: Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Saransk, Sochi, St. Petersburg, and Volgograd.

Crimea seceded from Ukraine to rejoin Russia in March 2014, following a referendum in which over 96 percent of voters supported the move. The Ukrainian government and many Western nations refused to recognize the legality of the vote and introduced sanctions against the region and Russia, while Moscow repeatedly stressed that the vote was in accordance with international law.