Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former KGB spy who has now become the world’s most powerful man, is wreaking havoc in Ukraine by covertly funding and supplying weapons to separatists who have ruined the Eastern part of the country.

He is also unnerving the Baltic states and starting to play dangerous games with Nato.

His air force has started to fly very close to various European countries in busy international flight paths with transponders switched off to avoid detection.

His institutions imprison anyone who dares oppose him and he has been indirectly implicated in the fatal poisoning of a prominent dissident in London.

A number of credible accounts testify that Russian anti-US and EU sentiment is at an all-time high after nearly 18 years of lies and propaganda on xenophobic state-controlled media.

Gays and lesbians are having a particularly hard time and it was recently reported that a new law has banned gay persons from holding a driving licence.

Yet, notwithstanding all this and much more, FIFA is due to hold the 2018 World Cup in Russia. If sports unites people, fosters healthy competition and promotes friendly rivalry between teams and nations, then surely such a prestigious event should never have been handed on a platter to Putin’s Russia.

I admire the resilience and ingenuity of the Russian people and have nothing against them. However, their bully of a leader needs to learn that there will be consequences to such behaviour.

I therefore humbly call on FIFA to revoke its decision, failing which all EU nations should boycott this event.

Remember the Berlin Olympics of 1936.