Russian football teams remain banned from UEFA competitions due to the ongoing Ukraine war. The UEFA Super Cup will not be hosted in Russia, and there are no current steps toward Russia’s return to UEFA or FIFA competitions. Future meetings are planned to discuss cooperation, but reintegration seems unlikely without broader consensus from other sports organizations.
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russian football teams are set to continue their ban from UEFA competitions. Russia will also not host the UEFA Super Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Kazan later this year. This decision follows a meeting between Russian Football Union (RFU) executives and UEFA officials at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, ahead of the ExCo meeting set for tomorrow.
Despite some reports in Russian media, UEFA has not established any working group to facilitate Russia’s return to European competitions. Since late February last year, UEFA and FIFA have prohibited Russian national teams and clubs from participating in their competitions as a direct outcome of the conflict. An official RFU statement confirmed that topics such as cooperation with UEFA were discussed, highlighting the desire to reintegrate Russian teams into international play.
This meeting included discussions on future steps, and the RFU and UEFA agreed to meet again in February to further this dialogue. However, any move to reintegrate Russia is unlikely to happen swiftly while the war continues, as other organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would need to be part of these discussions.
The IOC has started deliberations about allowing individual Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete in the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics, similar to previous arrangements during the 2020 and 2022 Olympics. However, the RFU was excluded from the September draw for the 2024 European Championship qualifying rounds, although it has remained vocal about its intention to return to UEFA.
RFU President Alexander Dyukov expressed a strong desire to return to UEFA competitions, particularly aiming to participate in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. Late last year, the RFU considered resigning from UEFA to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), but faced significant opposition to this approach.
Original Source: www.nytimes.com
