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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Gavin Berry

Rod Petrie in Ukraine World Cup solidarity gesture as SFA chief offers training facilities ahead of Hampden crunch

Rod Petrie has reached out to Ukraine’s football federation ahead of Scotland’s World Cup play off at Hampden next month.

The SFA president wrote to counterpart Andriy Pavelko to offer their rivals training facilities with Russia’s invasion of the country putting the game in huge doubt.

Many of Oleksandr Petrakov’s squad are domestic players and the league has been suspended after the invasion by their neighbours.

But the SFA released a statement saying: "The Scottish FA President, Rod Petrie, has written to his counterpart at the Ukrainian Association of Football to send a message of support, friendship and unity.

"Football is inconsequential amid conflict, but we have conveyed the strong sense of solidarity communicated to us by Scotland fans and citizens in recent days.

"We remain in dialogue with UEFA and FIFA regarding our men’s FIFA World Cup Play-off and women’s World Cup qualifier and have offered to support our Ukrainian colleagues’ preparations as best we can in these unimaginably difficult circumstances."

We told earlier how Austrian chiefs told how they had held talks with the SFA and Wales over the upcoming play offs.

Steve Clarke’s men are due to take on Ukraine on March 24 but the escalating crisis has threatened the game.

Austria and Wales are also due to clash with the winners taking on Scotland or Ukraine on March 29.

And the Austrian FA said they are in talks with the SFA and Welsh FA over the difficult situation.

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