A soccer player in traditional robes prepares to kick a ball marked with a prohibition symbol toward a goal defended by another robed figure lying across the net. The scene references restrictions during the 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar, where religious and cultural rules limited certain expressions of the sport.
On March 11 2022 FIFA barred Russia from the World Cup and other soccer competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine. The cartoon shows a shirtless Vladimir Putin standing under a storm cloud as a hand labeled FIFA kicks away a ball marked Ukraine. Putin reacts with dismay in a thought bubble reading not the ball. The image captures the immediate sporting consequences of the military action that began weeks earlier.
