Never mind the oddity of a football World Cup played around Christmas-time in a Muslim country, what will become of the one scheduled for Russia four years earlier in 2018 should President Vladimir Putin decide to do a Hitler and invade Poland?  Or any other former satellite nation now fearing a similarly dire situation to that in Ukraine?

On the surface the question may seem an over-dramatisation of the escalating rumblings around the Baltic region but should you read between the diplomatic lines it becomes a relevant one.

So much so that the possibility of a boycott is firmly back on sport's international agenda.

Governments of several western countries, including the United Kingdom, as well as the European Commission, are believed to be seriously considering whether to advocate the implementation of the B-word if Russia doesn't rein back on its apparent path towards expansionism.

Interestingly at a three-way discussion panel organised by the Sports Journalists Association in Westminster last week none of the speakers - Conservative Sports Minister Helen Grant, her Labour shadow Clive Efford and the Liberal Democrats John Leech - were prepared to rule out a future Government of any political hue requesting the Football Association to pull out of the World Cup if Putin doesn't mend his ways.

All hedged their bets as to whether this might happen while declaring, naturally, that the final decision should be left to the FA itself.

Suddenly an air of déjà vu descended, with Efford pointedly recalling the Moscow Olympics of 1980 when, with Russian troops in Afghanistan - as indeed are some now in the Crimea - Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher urged the British Olympic Association to follow the United States and West Germany snub the Games.

Deteriorating relations between Russia and western nations like Great Britain could raise the possibility of a boycott of Russia 2018 ©Getty Images



Although sailing, hockey and equestrian meekly succumbed under the weight of her swinging handbag, the BOA, bravely led by a formidable chairman in ex-FA chief Sir Denis Follows, did not. Neither did defiant luminaries including Sebastian Coe and Colin Moynihan, both later to become Tory MPs and peers, and in Moynihan's case Thatcher's Sports Minister.

Boycotts, argued Coe, have no place in sport and they never work. By and large it is a sentiment with which most agree though I do believe that one conclusively prised open the developing crack in the wall  of South Africa's odious Apartheid.

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has called the boycott idea "a very potent political and symbolic sanction," adding, "If there's one thing that Vladimir Putin cares about, as far as I can see, it's his sense of status".

And the Spanish newspaper El País has reported  that the European Commission was considering recommending a boycott of 2018 as part of extended sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

Clearly Sepp Blatter, for all his power and self-glorification, has been, along with his fellow desperados on the FIFA Executive Board, seriously short in lessons in geopolitics.

If he wins the FIFA Presidential election in May, Russia 2018 is poised to be the central challenge of Sepp Blatter's fifth term as FIFA President ©AFP/Getty Images



He now admits: "There are already some voices coming out about 2018 talking about a boycott. A boycott in sport never has had any benefit. Let us wait and see the geopolitical situation. FIFA shall not intervene with politics. But for the time being, we are working with Russia."

Assuming he is still ensconced in his presidential palace in Zurich after FIFA's May election, Blatter surely will need to be rather more forceful in dealing with Putin.

Not only over Vlad's apparent warmongering but a number of other matters concerning Russian football, among them the need to prioritise the eradication of racism.

He says he has already expressed FIFA's concern to Putin about this but  cases have escalated recently, including unsavoury incidents in the Champions League.

Then there are technical issues whether Russia are already in breach of  regulations with three teams from newly-annexed Crimea, Yalta, Simferopol and Sevastopol, now  playing in Russia's regionalised Second Division. UEFA rules bar teams belonging to one recognised national federation from participating in another's competitions, although there are exceptions in Great Britain for Welsh teams.

Another controversy which could see the English FA, understandbly piqued after losing out to Russia, joining any Government call for a boycotts  their dissatisfaction  with the report in November 2014 which cleared both Russia and Qatar of corruption in the bidding processes for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Although awaiting thee full release of the Garcia Report, the FA chairman Greg Dyke has called for a re-investigation of the claims, while his predecessor David Bernstein is on record urging European nations to boycott Russia unless, FIFA undergoes serious reform.

"England on its own cannot influence this - one country can't do it," he has said."If we tried to do something like that we'd be laughed at. I think England within UEFA undoubtedly have the power to influence FIFA, but to do so they would have to consider withdrawing from the next World Cup, unless proper reform - which he intimated included  Blatter not standing for a fifth term - is carried out.

"If I was at the FA now, I would do everything I could to encourage other nations within UEFA and there are some who would definitely be on side, others maybe not - to take this line. At some stage you have to walk the talk, stop talking and do something."

On top of all this we now have the growing turmoil in Russia's internal politics typified last weekend by the gunning down close to the Kremlin of one of Putin's principal opponents, Boris Nemtsov, who has openly opposed Russia's involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and annexation  of Crimea.

Boris Nemtsov's death has triggered a huge response across Russia ©AFP/Getty Images



The following mass rally of support for that view suggests Putin may yet have the skids under him before 2018 materialises.

But the big question remains: Will FIFA's folly in initially awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in the stifling heat of an Arabian summer and the subsequent fixture chaos in Europe with the inevitable switch to a climatically more amenable time of year now be compounded by having to re-examine the placing of the 2018 tournament?

Losing Russia's status as World Cup hosts would not only be a crippling blow to Putin's pride, but one that could be politically terminal in the malevolent theatre of Kremlin politics.

Which is why the B-word could be a vital weapon before the final whistle is blown in this treacherous game of political football.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for the Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.