Russia and Ukraine might be put into different groups at the 2018 World Cup finals if the Ukrainians qualify and relations between the two countries do not improve, Fifa said on Tuesday.
However, Fifa denied a comment attributed to President Sepp Blatter, who was quoted by the R-Sport agency as saying “you can be sure about this” in reply to a question about whether the two countries would be kept apart.
“The President did not say that they would be kept apart or that such a decision has been made. It seems (there was) a translation mistake,” said Fifa in a statement to Reuters.
“What the Fifa president actually said was that, in any qualifying campaign, the aim is always to avoid problems as was done in the past between teams where high tensions can be anticipated.