UK top official says Russia should not host 2018 World Cup

British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has joined calls for Russia to face the axe as hosts of the 2018 World Cup as part of tougher sanctions over the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine, the Guardian reports.

The British official said it was "unthinkable" at present that the tournament could go ahead in the country blamed by the west for supplying arms to the separatist rebels accused of causing the deaths of all 298 on board.

Clegg told the Sunday Times that allowing it to go ahead without a change of course by president Vladimir Putin would make the world look "so weak and so insincere" in its condemnation of Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for the rebels.