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FIFA faces a reckoning as a growing chorus of countries refuses to play Russia in World Cup qualifying

For decades now, Russian President Vladimir Putin, among other despots and dictators, has used feckless international sports organizations to prop them up and help cleanse their dismal record on human rights.

FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and others have gladly done the bidding of the worst of the world’s worst in the name of money. There has never been a bar too low to squirm under.

Since 2008, China has hosted two Olympics and Russia one. The Russians also ran the 2018 men's World Cup soccer tournament

The 2022 men's World Cup will be staged in Qatar, where gleaming stadiums and transportation lines were built by low-paid migrant workers who toiled in unsafe conditions with numerous fatalities.