The world football governing body, FIFA, and the European football governing body, UEFA, have banned Russia from football until the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine is settled.
Earlier in the day, Futballnews reported that the English FA and other football associations in Europe have been trying to convince the two football bodies to ban Russia from football over the country’s assault on Ukraine.
Recall that since Thursday, February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine and killed scores of people, the world has been agitating against the Eastern European country.
The desire of Russia’s government to have control over Ukraine and Russia’s agitation against Ukraine’s attempt to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are said to be two of the major reasons Russia and Ukraine are at war.
To discourage the ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia’s military, football stakeholders have slammed the country with different degrees of sanctions. The height of it was the temporary ban FIFA and UEFA slammed on the country on Monday evening, February 28, 2022.
A joint FIFA and UEFA statement read: “Following the initial decisions adopted by the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, which envisaged the adoption of additional measures, FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.
“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.
“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.”
FIFA/UEFA suspend Russian clubs and national teams from all competitions
— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) February 28, 2022
▶️ https://t.co/Q2htzW3W9z pic.twitter.com/LFo1bUtqmm
Russia and Ukraine war: Spartak Moscow are out of Europa League in favor of RB Leipzig
One of the consequences of the FIFA and UEFA ban on Russia is that Russia’s club, Spartak Moscow will not be able to play their Europa League round of 16 match against German club RB Leipzig.
The first leg of the Europa League round of 16 match was scheduled to take place on March 10 in Germany. But the Russia and Ukraine war has forced UEFA to call it off.
Hence, German Bundesliga club RB Leipzig has automatically qualified for the quarter-final stage of the Europa League.
A UEFA statement read: “As a consequence of today’s decision by the UEFA Executive Committee to suspend Russian club and national teams from taking part in UEFA competitions until further notice, the UEFA Europa League matches between RB Leipzig and FC Spartak Moskva cannot take place, and, as a consequence, RB Leipzig are qualified to the quarter-finals of the competition”.
What are other consequences of the ban on Russia
Aside from the fact that Spartak Moscow’s journey in the Europa League has ended abruptly thanks to the ongoing crisis between Russia and Ukraine, the FIFA ban on Russia means that Russia will not play Poland in the 2022 FIFA World Cup play-off scheduled for March 24 if the war is not settled before then.
Hence, the repercussion is that Russia would not be able to play in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar in November.
Also, if the ongoing war is not over before June this year, Russia would not have the opportunity of playing Albania, Israel, and Iceland, in the 2022-2023 Nations League.
Russia’s women’s football team might not be able to play in the forthcoming Women’s Euro 2022 in July if the war between Russia and Ukraine is not over before then.
