By Paul Nicholson
February 28 – Less than 24 hours after announcing a set of ‘soft’ sanctions against the Russian national team and the country’s clubs, FIFA and UEFA have bowed to overwhelming pressure from the football community, fans and media and suspended all teams from the country from participation in their competitions “until further notice”.
A joint statement by FIFA and UEFA said that “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.”
It is a joint statement that saves face for FIFA’s president Gianni Infantino and shows a rare moment of solidarity with his UEFA counterpart Aleksander Ceferin. Infantino had already been ridiculed for his lack of leadership over the crisis in Ukraine and his failure to condemn the actions of Russian president Vladimir Putin who awarded Infantino and Order of Friendship medal but in 2022 has brought war to the European continent.
In practical terms it means that Russia will not continue in the play-offs for 2022 World Cup qualification, its women’s team will not compete at the upcoming Euro2022 championship in England this summer, and Spartak Moscow will not continue in the Europa League.
United front
“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,” said the briefly worded FIFA/UEFA statement.
On Sunday football clearly wasn’t united as FIFA was clearly swimming against the tide of global and public opinion after a weekend of fan support at league matches across Europe for the Ukrainian resistance against the Russian invasion, player declarations of support for their Ukrainian colleagues and clubs and national associations all calling for action.
While FIFA “condemned” the invasion saying, its sanctions were to allow Russian teams to play without their flag and anthem, and banned all competitions under its jurisdiction to be played on Russian soil, ruling the country’s home games must be played on neutral territory behind closed doors – and under the name of the Football Union of Russia.
The sanctions were met with a barrage of criticism, not least from the three European associations – Poland, Czech Republic and Sweden – who stood in the way of Russian progress to Qatar 2022.
Poland were due to play Russia in a World Cup playoff semi-final on March 24.
“Today’s FIFA decision is totally unacceptable,” Polish football federation president Cezary Kulesza tweeted. “We are not interested in participating in this game of appearances. Our stance remains intact: Polish National Team will NOT PLAY with Russia, no matter what the name of the team is.”
Swedish FA president Karl-Erik Nilsson, UEFA’s senior vice president, was also unhappy with FIFA’s decision. “We had expected a sharper stance from FIFA,” he was quoted as saying.
“The illegal and deeply unjust invasion of Ukraine currently makes all football fixtures with Russia impossible. We therefore urge FIFA to decide that the playoff matches in March in which Russia participates will be cancelled.”
On Monday the English FA said that none of its teams would compete against Russian teams.
A few hours later FIFA and UEFA confirmed that no-one would be playing them. Meanwhile the Russian army advanced to within 17 miles of Kiev.
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