KEIR RADNEDGE REPORTING —- European federation UEFA , without bothering to wait for the Court of Appeal for Sport, has firmed up on its suspension of Russia from international competition.
Russia’s bid to host the European Championship finals in 2028 or 2032 has been ruled ineligible and the women’s national team have been formally replaced in this summer’s European finals in England by Portugal.
The ban, which runs for a year, also includes access to the Champions League and other European club and age-group tournaments.
On February 28 UEFA and world governing body FIFA kicked Russia from all international football because of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Five days later the Russians registered an appeal at CAS but a request for the ban to be lifted pending a hearing was rejected. At the start of April the Russians dropped an appeal against expulsion from the FIFA World Cup playoffs but issues within UEFA’s jurisdiction remained open.
Not any more after the latest meeting of the UEFA executive committee.
A UEFA statement said:
Russia will not participate in Group 2 of League B and will automatically be ranked fourth in this group. Consequently, they will be relegated at the end of the group phase and ranked in 16th and last place of League B.
UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 (final tournament)
Russia will not participate in group C of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 final tournament scheduled between 6 and 31 July in England and will be replaced by Portugal, the opponent Russia defeated in the play-offs.
European Qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023
Russia did not play their two matches scheduled in April in Group E (comprising Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Malta and Azerbaijan) due to their suspension. Russia will not participate in any of the subsequent matches in this competition and all their results until now are considered as null and void. Consequently, Group E will continue as a group of five teams.
2021-23 European Under 21 Championship
Russia did not play their two matches scheduled in March in Group C (comprising Spain, Slovakia, Malta, Lithuania and Northern Ireland) due to their suspension. Russia will not participate in any of the subsequent matches in this competition and all their results until now are considered as null and void. Consequently, Group C will continue as a group of five teams.
2022/23 UEFA club competitions
UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, UEFA Women’s Champions League and UEFA Youth League
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.
UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO 2022 (final tournament)
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.
2022/23 UEFA Women’s Futsal EURO
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.
2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League
Russia will have no affiliated clubs participating in the 2022/23 UEFA Futsal Champions League.
European Qualifications to the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024
Russia will be replaced in the Main Round group phase draw by Norway, which was the best third-ranked team of the Preliminary Round.
2022/23 Youth competitions
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.
2022/23 UEFA Regions’ Cup
Russia will be replaced by the runner-up of the Preliminary Round in Group 1 of the Intermediate Round.
EURO 2028/32 Bid procedure
The UEFA Executive Committee declared the bid submitted by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) to host the UEFA EURO 2028 or the UEFA EURO 2032 as not eligible, in accordance with Article 16.02 of the Bid Regulations UEFA Finals and Final Phases which states that “each bidder shall ensure that it does not act in a manner that could bring UEFA, the UEFA final or UEFA final phase, any other bidder (or any employee, officer or representative of any of the foregoing), the bidding procedure or European football into disrepute.”
Moreover, “the automatic qualification of the host team(s) shall be guaranteed (…) for a single host (…)”. Therefore, given the uncertainty as to when the suspension will be lifted, the acceptance of a bid from the FUR would also go against the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee of 28 February 2022, suspending all Russian representative teams and clubs from participating in UEFA competition matches until further notice, if an association, whose teams are currently suspended from participating in any UEFA competition would be allowed to bid for a tournament to be hosted on its territory.
The UEFA Executive Committee will remain on standby to convene further meetings to reassess the legal and factual situation as it evolves and adopt further decisions as necessary
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