By Mark Baber
August 1 – Meeting in the House of Football, the Russian Football Union (RFU) decided on Thursday to allow Crimean football clubs to play Russian league football from next season.
‘Football Club TSK’ (Simferopol), SKChF (Sevastopol) and Zhemchuzhina (Yalta), who have all been set up as separate Russian legal entities in recent weeks, will all play in the second division (south), in the third tier of Russian football.
The move became inevitable following the overthrow of ex-President Vikto Yanukovic in February and the reunification of Crimea with Russia, which has left the Crimean clubs with no possibility of continuing to play in the Ukrainian league and without a league to play in for this season.
The RFU issued a statement saying: “At the next Russian Football Union conference we will put the question forward to the Russian Football Union that they should accept the Sevastopol Football Federation and the Republican Federation of Crimean Football under their umbrella.”
Tensions between Russia and Ukraine continue at a very high level, and it remains to be seen if the authorities in Kiev will try to make football into another battleground, with Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov having already called for a boycott of the 2018 World Cup to be held in Russia.
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