MH17 and Shakhtar Donetsk

So I've seen a few articles on the effects of football and MH17, turns out a whole swag of players aren't wanting to return to the city which is still apparently under partial rebel control.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/10294671/Footballers-refusing-to-go-to-Ukraine-will-suffer

To be fair, while these guys have of course signed legal contracts with the club, should they have to return? I probably wouldnt.

Also FIFA have had no issues telling Israel they are banned from European competitions for their Gaza invasion, can't FIFA ban Russia ??

(mods please let me know if there is already a thread for this)

Doesn't seem like they have a leg to stand on, they won't be forced to go into a war zone and will play their games from neutral venues. 

FIFA can't do much about Russia because Russia is: 

a) very big and very rich 

b) hasn't been proven to have shot down the plane (although of course they were involved, Putin is one evil mother)

c) hosting the next world cup and its too late to go through another bidding process + it would look bad if the next two world cup venues are abandoned

Ignoring that little bit i added onto the end, i still think the Shaktar players shouldnt have to return if they dont feel safe anymore. I'm just surprised FIFA have been completely silent on this.

Most of Ukraine is safe, I was in Dombay in Russia literally 5km from the border of Abkhazia during the war between Russian backed separatists and Georgia and it was fine. Life goes on.

Most governments are saying that Ukraine is safe to travel to as long as you stay away from certain trouble areas, when that changes then the players have room to complain.

Isn't the problem that Donetsk is one of those trouble areas?

Yes but they are not going to play in Donetsk, they are playing in nuetral venues in safe parts of Ukraine.

Pretty sure 10km in the air was considered safe a week ago.

Fair enough, but to be honest and to invoke a blatant stereotype, South American players in Ukraine face more danger from racism than from the war.

Where will they be living?

My guess would be anywhere other than Donetsk.

So a player who feels seriously threatened by racism and whose team's city is now a warzone "doesn't have a leg to stand on?" Wanting to get out of there sounds pretty valid to me, even if the latest developments in Ukraine were just the straw that broke the camel's back.

pretty much the same situation as Anzhi down in Dagestan, the players all live in Moscow and fly in for games and fly straight back out

But they aren't going to live or play in Denetsk, they will be in the stable parts of Ukraine. These places are different to what you expect, the whole country isn't a war zone just a few provinces.

I've been within a couple of hundred of KM's of Grozny and while security is higher than normal the cities in the region themselves are safe enough.

If they were forced to play in Denetsk or live there then you have a point but they will be playing (and I assume staying) in safe zones.

If they were woried about racism they shouldn't have signed up to a team in a former soviet republic. It kind of goes with the teritory to be frank. Stein obviously had one look at the place and decided it wasn't for him and left.

They've moved the club to Kiev, confirmed today. (Temporarily of course)