By Mark Baber
August 26 – On Friday, UEFA’s Emergency Panel issued a statement saying that “any football matches played by Crimean clubs organised under the auspices of the Russian Football Union will not be recognised by UEFA.” The decision has been welcomed as a wise one by Russian football authorities.
Three Crimean clubs have been playing in Russian Cup and League matches in recent days, following the disputed reunification of Crimea with Russia. The Ukrainian football authorities wrote to UEFA and FIFA demanding sanctions and asserting their jurisdiction over all footballing matters in Crimea.
UEFA’s Emergency Panel, which would ordinarily include UEFA President Michel Platini ,the First Vice-President Senes Erzik, the vice-president chairing the Finance Committee Marios Lefkarkis and two other members of the Executive Committee chosen by the President on a case-by-case basis announced that “In light of the complex and difficult factual and political considerations, and until an agreed solution can be found with regard to the situation in Crimea, the UEFA Emergency Panel has today decided that any football matches played by Crimean clubs organised under the auspices of the Russian Football Union (RFS) will not be recognised by UEFA until further notice.”
The three Crimean teams – TSK Simferopol, SKChF Sevastopol and Zhemchuzhina Yalta – have been accepted into a lower league so UEFA’s decision not to recognise their matches is unlikely to have any practical effect in the short term.
The statement continues, “UEFA has no wish to prevent clubs from playing football. On the contrary, UEFA recognises that football can have very positive and beneficial effects in bringing people together, especially during times of strife and unrest. Nevertheless, in order for football to take place within an organised sporting and legal framework, such participation has to comply with the terms set out in the UEFA Statutes, which have been agreed by all 54 UEFA member associations.”
UEFA have kept Russian and Ukrainian clubs apart in UEFA competitions, recognising that the chances of crowd violence would be very high. Ukraine have had to play domestic games behind closed doors or in neutral venues due to the ongoing unrest in the country, which has recently seen the Donbass Arena, home to Shaktar Donetsk, being damaged in bombing.
Clearly there is no realistic prospect of Crimean clubs playing in Ukraine again.
The UEFA Emergency Panel “has also requested that the UEFA administration, together with FIFA, facilitate discussions with the representatives of the RFS and the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU) in order to find a common solution to this situation.”
It will require some very skilful diplomacy to find agreement between the Ukrainian and Russian Federations on this matter. However, the UEFA statement has been welcomed by Russian officials who are relieved that UEFA has not imposed any sanctions on Russian clubs or dented the country’s chances of hosting the World Cup in 2018.
FC SKChF Sevastopol director of football Evgeniy Repenkov welcomed the decision as “clear-headed” whilst the Russian Football Union’s honorary president, Vyacheslav Koloskov, told Russia’s R-Sport agency the UEFA ruling “satisfies us” and that “UEFA, in my opinion, has acted very wisely.”
Head of the Russian Football Federation, Vitaly Mutko said that he does not see anything dramatic about UEFA’s stance and thinks that Russian Football Federation did the right thing in the circumstances. According to Mutko, the federation would continue to work for a solution and Russia would continue to develop football in Crimea.
Any decision by UEFA to sanction Russian football, may have opened up the question of why Israel had not been similarly sanctioned. Israel, after all, allows clubs from Israeli settlements on the occupied West Bank, such as Beitar Ironi Ma’le Adumim and Deitar Giv’at Ze’ev, to play in its lower leagues as well as in the Israel State Cup which represents a possible path into the UEFA Europa League.
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