Aditya ChaudhuriRussian clubs and international football teams suspended indefinitely.
FIFA and UEFA have taken a joint decision to suspend all Russian national football teams and domestic clubs from international football competitions indefinitely. The decision was announced on Monday, following Russia’s continuing attacks on Ukraine.
The decision from two of football’s leading bodies means that the Russian men’s team will not be able to face Poland in their upcoming World Cup Play-off semi-final in March and neither will the Russian women’s team be able to compete in the European Championships set to be held in England later in the summer this year. Spartak Moscow, the only Russian team left in a UEFA competition this season—the Europa League—is also suspended.
The two bodies released a joint statement, which read:
“Following the initial decisions adopted by the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, which envisaged the adoption of additional measures, FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.
“These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the Fifa Council and the Executive Committee of Uefa, respectively the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters. Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine. Both Presidents hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people.”
UEFA had earlier terminated its long-term sponsorship deal with Russian gas company Gazprom, which had been a major sponsor of the UEFA Champions League for more than a decade. This year’s UEFA Champions League final was also supposed to be held at the Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg, but given the current circumstances UEFA has moved the final to Paris, France.
On the Gazprom decision, UEFA released a statement which read:
“Uefa has today decided to end its partnership with Gazprom across all competitions.
“The decision is effective immediately and covers all existing agreements including the Uefa Champions League, Uefa national team competitions and Uefa Euro 2024.”
The Russian Football Union (RFU) also responded to FIFA & UEFA’s decision, criticising it and announcing that it would challenge it.
The statement from the RFU read:
“The Russian Football Union categorically disagrees with the decision of FIFA and UEFA to suspend all Russian teams.
“We reserve the right to challenge the decision of FIFA and UEFA in accordance with international sports law.
“We believe that this decision is contrary to the norms and principles of international competition, as well as the spirit of sports. It has an obvious discriminatory character and harms a huge number of athletes, coaches, employees of clubs and national teams, and most importantly, millions of Russian and foreign fans, whose interests international sports organizations must protect in the first place.
“Such actions are dividing the world sports community, which has always adhered to the principles of equality, mutual respect and independence from politics.”
Earlier on Sunday, FIFA had announced some sanctions on the Russian teams that would see them disallowed from playing under the Russian flag and play their home matches at neutral venues behind closed doors. FIFA had also announced that the Russian national anthem would be banned before the matches.
Consequently, the football-governing bodies of Scotland, Republic of Ireland, England, Northern Ireland, Wales, Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden among several other nations announced that they would not have their teams playing against Russia. FIFA’s sanctions were met with widespread criticism, with most dismissing them as not sufficiently effective.
Following the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban the Russian Olympic Committee and recommendation that Russian and Belarusian athletes be prevented from competing, FIFA and UEFA held a joint meeting on Monday to upgrade upon their original decision.
