Conor McGregor

The failures of the world of sport to resist the embrace of Putin are also Irish failures.

Indeed, at the time, the BBC reported the broad consensus that the World Cup was a “resounding public relations success”. This was neatly encapsulated in the words of one England supporter, who gave his name as Darren from Blackpool: “Everything the British government has said about Russia is a lie. Placed also beside the ongoing relationship with China, through the Confucius Institute, it marked a failure of judgement that cannot be accepted. All the while, Putin has put himself at the centre of the story. The litany of the misdeeds of his regime was well-established. On the one hand, he has sought Russian success in international competition as a matter of national prestige. The point is that there is no room for equivocation. On the other, he has used major sporting events to demonstrate that Russia was a modern, normal state. Hickey told Paul Williams about his relationship with Putin: “He’s the patron of the Judo Federation in Russia and the World Judo Federation and I meet him at tournaments. And, at the same time, Russian money and influence went to work on those who run world sport. McGregor was invited to the 2018 FIFA World Cup as Putin’s guest. To be clear, by the time of their stagings, that Putin was a murderous tyrant was not in doubt. So any time I was in Russia on business, I invariably got an invitation to come and see him in the Kremlin. I had the privilege of being twice there to see him, once to have dinner with him but not just us on our own, there were about five or six other people, which was a great honour and great privilege.” Previously, after many countries had called for Russia to be banned from competing in those Rio Olympic Games because of repeated, systematic doping offences, Hickey said he himself “supported totally” the athletes being allowed to take part: “You can't condemn all the athletes for the sake of the few that are caught.”