February 28, (THEWILL) – Following the invasion of Ukraine, FIFA has banned Russian teams from competing in FIFA or UEFA events until further notice.
This comes with reports that FIFA was in advanced talks to make the decision and after the world football governing body initially decided against banning the country from competition on Sunday.
As THEWILL previously reported, on Sunday FIFA decided instead to permit Russia to compete under the name RFU (Russian Football Union). For the qualifiers, the team was not going to display the Russian flag or sing the national hymn based on that Sunday decision.
The decision not to ban Russia drew criticism, but FIFA hinted that things could change. The present prohibition appears to be the consequence of pressure from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which called on sporting groups to disqualify Russian competitors from international competitions, and other factors.
The men’s national squad could be impacted by the suspension ahead of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Russia will play Poland in a qualifying playoff on March 24, and if it wins, it will play Sweden or the Czech Republic. The three other teams, on the other hand, have declined to face Russia.
A FIFA statement read: “FIFA will continue its ongoing dialogue with the IOC, UEFA and other sport organisations to determine any additional measures or sanctions, including a potential exclusion from competitions, that shall be applied in the near future should the situation not be improving rapidly.”
As THEWILL reported, the IOC said in a statement Monday that a suspension is needed to “protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants.”
As the host country, Russia’s men’s team advanced to the World Cup quarterfinals in the last tournament.
With the European Championships starting in July, a FIFA ban will have an impact on the women’s national team as well. Russia qualified for continental competition and is presently ranked number 25 in the world.
UEFA followed suit and went further to also end its relationship with Gazprom, the Russian state-owned energy giant that was a major sponsor of the Champions League.
A joint statement from FIFA and UEFA read: “Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine.
“Both presidents [Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin] 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.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
