Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Sports, Tourism and Youth, Mikhail Degtyarev has weighed into a debate with lawmaker Tamara Pletnyova, who urged Russian women not to have sex with foreign fans.

“The more World Cup love stories we have, the more people from different countries will fall in love with that game,” Degtyarev said, according to Moskva Agency.

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“The more children will be born [from that love], the better. Because many years from now, those children will remember that their parents’ love story started here in Russia during the 2018 World Cup. Let’s hope that the World Cup will give us many love stories, interracial couples and children.”

Degtyarev’s call for natives to fall in love with World Cup guests was made in reply to Pletnyova’s advice for women to avoid having sex with foreign fans who came to Russia for football’s biggest showpiece.

Pletnyova, chairwoman of the Family, Women, and Children Affairs Committee, insists that romantic affairs with foreigners during the World Cup may lead to an increase in single motherhood in Russia.

“Will there be the girls that will meet [with men] and become pregnant? Maybe yes, maybe no, I hope. These children suffer and have suffered, even since Soviet times,” Pletnyova said, according to radio station Govorit Moskva.