Last night the upcoming World Cup match between Wales and Russia became a little bit dirtier after Russian health chiefs offended the Welsh with warnings to fans not to travel to Cardiff - to avoid catching swine flu.
The head of Russia’s state health agency even suggested that the match, scheduled for September 9th, be cancelled, describing the game as “extremely unnecessary and inappropriate.” Gennady Onishchenko is so alarmed by the prospect of a truckload of swiney fans returning back to the motherland that he vowed to “persuade our compatriots not to go to this match in Britain.”
So far Russia has only reported 55 cases of swine flu. Britain by contrast has hit the 11,000 mark, though only 30 people have died. However Onishchenko, who may well have a glittering future as a diplomat ahead of him, implied that we possibly were concealing the true extent of the outbreak, warning, “Our sources indicate that these figures are inaccurate” and postulating that the real number of those infected was tens or hundreds of times higher.
The Football Association of Wales have insisted that they have had no indication from their Russian colleagues that the match may be cancelled and expressed the hope that fans would be not put off coming.
They then added that they believed the advice was a case of someone trying to make a name for themselves and promised to welcome the Russians with “open arms”.
Smooth-tongued Mr. Onishchenko concluded rather alarmingly that the Russians “will be dissuading... countrymen” who express “willingness” to travel, conjuring up vivid images of thumbscrews and football fans rotting in cells, brokenly muttering, “I just vanted to see zee footie...”