UEFA has thrown the book at the Russian Football Union and has applied heavy sanctions and bans across all competitions at the club and international level.
Russia have been hit with sanctions by UEFA.https://t.co/SHWWInCGNC
— MARCA in English (@MARCAinENGLISH) May 3, 2022
As reported by MARCA and released on UEFA’s official website yesterday, European football’s governing body stated the following:
“Further to its 28 February 2022 decision to suspend all Russian representative teams and clubs from participating in UEFA competition matches until further notice, the UEFA Executive Committee today took a series of decisions relating to the implications of that decision for its upcoming competitions, in order to ensure their smooth staging in a safe and secure environment for all those concerned.”
What does this mean for Russian football?
On the international front, the Russian national team – both men and women – are set to be ousted from their respective competitions. The men’s national side will be unable to participate in the UEFA Nations League in 2022-23 as well as the European U21 Championship program between 2021-23.
In addition, Russia has been told that their bids to host Euro 2028 or Euro 2032 have been deemed non-eligible, but the sanctions placed on club football are even worse.
To summarize via the UEFA article:
- Russia will have no affiliated clubs participating in UEFA club competitions in the 2022/23 season. Consequently, the respective access lists of the men’s and women’s club competitions have been rebalanced in accordance with the principles set out in the relevant competition regulations.
- Furthermore, Russia will be assigned a number of coefficient points equivalent to the lowest number they have earned in any of the last five seasons, i.e. 4.333 points for the men’s association club coefficient and 1.750 for the women’s association club coefficient for the purpose of points calculation for the 2022/23 season.
- Russia will not participate in the final tournament (comprising Portugal, Spain, and Ukraine) scheduled between 1 and 3 July in Portugal and will be replaced by Hungary, who finished second in Group 1 of the Main Round, won by Russia.
- Russia had been directly drawn into Group 4 of the Main Round. As the three group winners and the best runner-up will qualify from the Preliminary Round, Russia will be replaced in the Main Round with the second best-ranked runner-up of the Preliminary Round.
- Russia will have no affiliated clubs participating in the 2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League.
- Russia will be replaced in the Main Round group phase draw by Norway, which was the best third-ranked team in the Preliminary Round.
- Russia will not participate in the 2022/23 Men’s Under-17 and Men’s Under-19 Championships and teams drawn in their group will compete against each other in a mini-tournament with three teams.
- Russia will not participate in the Women’s Under-17 and Women’s Under-19 Championships, and one additional three-team mini-tournament will take place in each competition.
- Russia will be replaced by the runner-up of the Preliminary Round in Group 1 of the Intermediate Round.
Though Russian football has no direct link to the geopolitical climate and decisions made by President Vladimir Putin, it is clear that UEFA has taken the decision to place the safety of its players, staff, and fans, as well as the integrity of the competitions in question as above everything else, which is in line with a continent-wide response to the continuous war in Ukraine.
