FIFA shamed into banning Russia from international football, World Cup after initial neutral call
FIFA has made a sharp U-turn on its decision to allow Russia to play football under another guise, with the nation to now be excluded from international matches including World Cups.
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FIFA has finally given in to the pressure to ban Russia from the World Cup and announced that all Russian teams will be excluded from international competition.
Only a day after provoking a storm of protest by saying that Russia could continue to play, though under neutral colours in a neutral country, FIFA changed its position. It came after an announcement from the IOC urging that all Russian athletes and officials be excluded from global competitions in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
FIFA and UEFA announced the ban in a joint statement. It means that Russia will not compete in next month’s World Cup playoff against Poland to try to secure a place at the finals in Qatar, and Russia’s women’s team will not take part in the women’s European Championship, which will be hosted by England in the summer.
Meanwhile, UEFA has also terminated a sponsorship deal with the Russian energy giant Gazprom, which is majority state-owned, that was worth tens of millions of dollars a year.
The FIFA-UEFA statement said: “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.
“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.”
The IOC’s action had left FIFA with little choice. The Olympic body said that Russia’s exclusion was needed to “protect the integrity of global sports competitions and for the safety of all the participants”. Its statement also applies to athletes and officials from Belarus, which has abetted Russia’s invasion by allowing its territory to be used to station troops and launch military attacks.
“While athletes from Russia and Belarus would be able to continue to participate in sports events, many athletes from Ukraine are prevented from doing so because of the attack on their country,” the IOC said.
Where exclusion is “not possible on short notice for organisational or legal reasons” then teams from Russia and Belarus should compete as neutral athletes with no national flag, anthem or symbols, including at the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Beijing, the IOC said.
The IOC also withdrew the gold Olympic Order awarded to Vladimir Putin in 2001, and those given to other Russian officials since.
Other sports are also introducing bans on Russian athletes and teams. The International Tennis Federation’s board will meet on Tuesday to decide whether that should apply to individual players. Russia’s Daniil Medvedev has just taken over as the No.1 men’s player in the world, though the ATP and WTA — which run the men’s and women’s tours respectively — say that no exclusion of individuals is planned.
There is precedent for removing Russian teams from sports. In 1992, following United Nations sanctions, FIFA and UEFA expelled Yugoslavia from their competitions when war broke out in the Balkans.
The English FA had made clear that it did not want Russia to take part in the women’s European Championship this summer, which England is hosting.
Russia had been due to play Sweden, Holland and Switzerland in the delayed Euro 21 tournament but Switzerland and Sweden said that they would not play them. Russia’s replacement in the tournament is likely to be Portugal, who were beaten by the Russians in the playoff.
In ice hockey, the sport’s governing body has come under pressure from Finland and Switzerland to ban Russia and Belarus, who are both due to play at the world championships in May in Helsinki and Tampere.
There are due to be 20 Ukrainian athletes competing in the Winter Paralympics in Beijing, though it is unclear how they are going to get there. There are 71 Russian Paralympians expected too, many of whom have already arrived.
The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) board will convene on Wednesday morning in Beijing and the Russian invasion of Ukraine is top of the agenda. The pressure to expel the Russian team and the Russian athletes from the Games is huge and this will, no doubt, be the stance held by some of the 13 IPC board members. Whether they can get over the line the expulsion of the Russian team is another matter.
Ukraine’s athletes themselves have asked for both the Russian and Belarusian teams to be expelled in an open letter to Andrew Parsons, the IPC president, and Thomas Bach, the IOC president. The letter, which was published on the Global Athlete website, read: “If the IOC and IPC refuse to take swift action, you are clearly emboldening both Russia’s and Belarus’s violation of international law and your own Charters. Your legacy will be defined by your actions.
“Make no mistake, athletes in the Ukraine are united in this call. It has been a challenge to speak with all athletes from Ukraine as they are seeking safety in bomb shelters.”
This letter has received support from a number of athletes outside Ukraine, including Sofiya Velikaya, the Russian fencer, who is a double Olympic champion and chairwoman of the Russian Athletes Commission.
The letter points to the Olympic charter, a reference to the Olympic truce which promotes a global peace agreement, commencing a week before the start of the Games and finishing seven days after the end of the Paralympics.
Russia already has a dismal record with this truce agreement. Its invasion of Georgia in 2008 coincided with the opening ceremony of the Beijing summer Olympics. In 2014, when Russia was itself the host of the winter Games, in Sochi, the occupation of the Crimea began as soon as the Olympic Games were over.
– The Times
Originally published as FIFA shamed into banning Russia from international football, World Cup after initial neutral call
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