By Mark Baber
June 9 – The Russian Football Union (RFU) has bowed to FIFA and UEFA requests, voting to put off a decision on allowing the Crimean clubs to play in the Russian football leagues. The decision means the Crimean clubs will be unable to start the beginning of next season.
Crimea’s clubs are keen to play in the Russian leagues and have changed their names and registered as Russian entities in order to help smooth the path and find their way around likely objections from the Football Federation of Ukraine (FFU).
Vyacheslav Koloskov, honorary president of the RFU and a former FIFA vice president told local media, “There are no chances whatsoever for the Crimean clubs to make the start of the Russian championship.”
Tavria Simferopol has taken on the new name SKIF, whilst FC Sevastopol has been renamed the Black Sea Fleet Sports Club (FC BSF). It is unclear at which level of the Russian league the two clubs will play.
With the inevitable loss of the Crimean clubs, the leadership of the FFU and leading clubs will meet on June 12 to decide on the league’s reform and to discuss a proposal by the Premier League leadership that the top flight championship be held in two stages, with the number of clubs reduced from 16 to 12.
The proposal is supported by Dnipro and Shakhtar Donetsk, the current champions whose Director-General Serhii Palkin told Sport Express: “Always guided by the rule that it is preferable to become stronger upon overcoming any challenge. The lesson of the last championship is, in my opinion, that the Premier League must be reduced to 12 clubs.”
“The tournament will become stronger and more attractive for sure if a dozen clubs plays four rounds. First two rounds of each with each, then two more times against each other in the first and second sixes. As a result will have not 30, as hither to, but 32 matches in a season, and the leading clubs-Shakhtar, Dnipro, Metalist, Dynamo-will be meeting each other twice as frequently as usual.”
The situation with regards to Crimea is quite unique, in that the vote of the peninsula’s inhabitants to reunite with Russia has not been accepted by most countries. The precise legal status of the Crimean clubs is argued over by scholars but FIFA and UEFA clearly have discretion in their decision.
The current UEFA vice-president and honorary president of the FFU Hryhoriy Surkis’ demand that the Russian Football Union await an official statement from FIFA, UEFA and the FFU before making a decision has been complied with. Now the Crimean teams will be hoping for a pragmatic decision from the football authorities, given that it is clearly impossible (particularly following the Odessa massacre and in light of an ongoing civil war in the East of the country) for them to continue playing in the Ukrainian leagues.
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