FIFA and UEFA have suspended Russia’s national teams and clubs from international football until further notice due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move makes it likely that Russia will be left out of this year’s World Cup and Women’s Euro 2020 tournament.
“FIFA and UEFA together today decided to suspend all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, from participating in both FIFA and UEFA competitions,” UEFA said in a statement.
“These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the Executive Committee of UEFA, which are the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters,” he said.
Russia was to host Poland in the World Cup qualifying playoffs on 24 March and if it remains suspended at that time, it will be ruled out of the World Cup and unable to reach the final in Qatar in November.
The Polish FA said it would refuse to play against the Russian team and the Czech Republic and Sweden, who are in the same playoff ‘path’, also refused to face Russia.
One way
The only way Russia could still make it to the playoffs would be a sudden improvement in the situation in Ukraine that would lead to the suspension of the move.
The organization said a further decision would be taken at a later date regarding the impact on the women’s Euro 2022 tournament in England in July, for which Russia has qualified.
The decision means that Spartak Moscow will not play their Europa League match against RB Leipzig and the German club will advance to the quarter-finals.
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