Russia wants the US to stop ruining soccer

KYIV, Ukraine — Soccer fans around the world may be celebrating after Wednesday’s US-backed arrests of top FIFA officials in Switzerland on corruption charges.

But Russian President Vladimir Putin sure isn’t.

“This is yet another blatant attempt [by the United States] to extend its jurisdiction to other states,” he said Thursday.

Putin and other Russian public figures are reacting to the crackdown on FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, with one of the Kremlin’s leading time-tested arguments: Once again, the US is forcing its way on the world.

That’s probably because Russia is set to host the World Cup in 2018, a privilege it would undoubtedly hate to lose.

The Kremlin sees the US investigation as a scheme to block FIFA chief Sepp Blatter from being re-elected as president of the sport’s governing body on Friday. Blatter has publicly supported Russia’s right to host the games amid calls from some in the international community for a revocation.

Last month, about a dozen US senators wrote an appeal to Blatter, asking FIFA to “deny Russia the privilege” of hosting the games, citing its role in stoking the conflict in Ukraine.

“American politicians understand that as long as Joseph Blatter remains in power at FIFA, there won’t be any change in locations for the World Cup in 2018 and 2022,” read a Wednesday article in the pro-Kremlin newspaper Izvestia.

A separate Swiss investigation will reportedly probe the bidding process for those two venues. Some believe that might spell trouble for Russia’s host status.

But officials maintain they’ve got “nothing to hide” amid what soccer supporters say is a long-awaited crackdown.

Meanwhile, the Russian general public apparently senses some funny business behind the scenes, too. In a recent poll by a popular sports newspaper, about 36 percent of readers said the investigations were a “conspiracy” against Russia, while 32 percent said they were explicitly aimed at pushing Blatter aside.

More from GlobalPost: Here's what FIFA's corporate partners are saying about the indictments