Following an emergency meeting this Monday of their respective governing bodies, FIFA and UEFA have both decided, to expel all Russian teams, whether they are national teams or clubs, from participating in any competition.
The organisations, led by Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin, thus position themselves clearly with Ukraine, stating that football is a “vector of unity and peace”. Russia will therefore may no longer play in any European or World competitions including the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
FIFA statement
“Following initial decisions taken by the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, decisions that provided for additional measures to be taken, FIFA and UEFA have today jointly decided that all Russian teams, whether they are national representative teams or club teams will be suspended from participating in FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice. These decisions were adopted today by the FIFA Council Bureau and the UEFA Executive Committee, respectively, the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters. Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all affected people in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile across other sports, the International Judo Federation has suspended Russian president Vladimir Putin as its honorary president.
Boxing’s world governing bodies the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO say they will not sanction any title fights in Russia.
At the Fencing World Cup in Cairo, Ukraine’s men’s foil team refused to fence against Russia on Sunday.
Russia’s Formula 1 Grand Prix, due to take place in Sochi in September, has been cancelled.
International sports federations were urged to move or cancel events currently planned in Russia or Belarus by the International Olympic Committee.
The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) postponed World Cup 2023 qualifiers between the Netherlands and Russia due to be played on 27 February and Great Britain and Belarus on 28 February.
Manchester United have terminated their sponsorship deal with Russia’s national airline Aeroflot.
The International Paralympic Committee will hold an executive board meeting on Wednesday before the start of the Beijing 2022 Paralympics on 4 March.
