By Ma Jianguo
UNITED NATIONS, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Friday the Russia's UN mission has made in bringing the World Cup to the United Nations Security Council will be passed to Sweden.
Answering a question by Xinhua, the Russian envoy to UN said that Russia has not only successfully brought the Russian World Cup spirit into the UN by arranging several sites for UN staff to watch the game through TV live broadcast, but also playing a football in front of the seat of the president of the Council.
Ambassador Nebenzya said the Swedish ambassador has promised to inherit this historical mission. As Russia takes over the presidency of the Security Council, Sweden has indicated that it will continue to leave football in front of the chair of the rotating president. So Russia's handover with the Swedish ambassador and the rotating presidency of the Council is also the handover of the World Cup.
Nebenzya said, "we asked our Swedish colleagues if they want to continue to have the ball on the president's table. If they said no, we would take the ball away but they said they will uphold the tradition and hold it until the World Cup is over."
A student football match, co-organized by Russian mission to UN and several other missions, was held at United Nations International School last Saturday when children representing wight qualified World Cup teams fight out for the trophies.
The Security Council appeared to have been "intruded" by football during opening ceremony of the Russian World Cup on June 14th when representatives of the 15 member states of the Security Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and UN General Assembly President Miroslav Lajcak, all put up their national football jerseys at the meeting hall.
Guterres showed up in a black referee's uniform and at one point held up a yellow card. Chinese Ambassador Ma Zhaoxu, who wore a trade mark Chinese red jersey raised up a table-tennis bat, posed with Guterres and Nebenzya for photos in front of correspondents.
The Swedish representative showed his super skill when he juggled a ball for over ten times on his feet.
For the past two weeks of the World Cup season, a football in front of the president's seat, must have been an eye catcher at the Security Council and with days ahead of Swedish takeover of the SC presidency, people started to wonder about the fate of what called "Security Council intruder." However, the friendly transfer of the football between Russian and Swedish ambassadors seems to have conveyed a positive signal of the on-going World Cup, when the SC football is serving as a goodwill ambassador.
The Russian Ambassador said at the opening day of the World Cup that "we will not only unite during the World Cup, we will continue to unite in the future." The football, dubbed "intruder of the Security Council" will witness the Russian-made history at UN during the whole length of the global tournament.
