The Football Federation of Ukraine (UAF) has sent a letter to the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Federations (UEFA) requesting the removal of the Russian Football Union (RFU) from the organizations. The reason for this requirement was that two football clubs from the Crimea – Sevastopol and Rubin Yalta – qualified for the Russian Second League in the 2023/24 season.
The UAF insists that “this illegal process of the capture of the subjects of Ukrainian football by the Russian side should be considered by FIFA and UEFA, taking measures and looking for opportunities to prevent this process from developing in the future.”
Since 2014, when the Crimean peninsula became part of the Russian Federation, Crimean football clubs have been playing in a separate league, the Crimean Championship, by decision of UEFA. Clubs are prohibited from participating in tournaments under the auspices of the RFU. On June 6, TASS reported that Sevastopol and Rubin Yalta have received the necessary certification to participate in the Second Division in the 2023/24 season. The teams will play in Group B, where 60 teams that will be licensed from the RFU will play.
Sevastopol Director General Valery Chaly reacted to the UAF’s request to exclude Russia from international organizations by criticizing the attitude of the Ukrainian association.
The position of the Sevastopol football club is: we are a subject of the Russian Federation and must be integrated into Russian football.
What the UAF is saying is a complete blizzard and bullshit, I wasn’t the only one expecting it from them.
Let Ukraine continue to carry this nonsense, or better yet, close its position on Crimea forever and develop football where it lives!” – Chaly quotes Sport24.
The head of Yalta “Rubin” Kirill Shaposhnikov said that he did not want to comment on the actions of the Ukrainian side.
“It is clear that we cannot expect anything but politics from the Ukrainian government and the structures that direct football there. We will certainly not expect favors from the UAF, one thing now depends on us – how we, together with the RFU, will respond to these sporting and political threats.
Our main task is to play football, to win and to make the fans experience the joy of this game. If the UAF likes it more than sports, let them keep playing politics,” Sport24 quotes Shaposhnikov.
Commenting on the UAF’s statement, RFU Honorary President Vyacheslav Koloskov noted that it is not worth responding to such statements.
“There is no need to react in any way to the statements of the UAF. UEFA and FIFA’s decisions are important to us and a lot of bad things are being said against us already in Ukraine. There are legal grounds to appeal against the decision to allow Crimean clubs to compete between professional Russian teams.
First, it is important to clearly define the status of Crimean clubs. Secondly, I think the leaders of the RFU are already in talks with the FIFA leadership.
It is possible that there is already some kind of solution, but theoretically anything is possible now,” Koloskov said in a comment to Sport24.
At the end of February 2022, the International Football Federation and the Union of European Football Federations suspended the participation of Russian national teams and Russian clubs in tournaments under their auspices, after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine. Thus, the National Men’s Team could not play the play-offs with the Polish National Team for the right to participate in the 2022 World Cup, while Spartak Moscow, the only Russian club that continues to play in the European cups, also failed. He will play against the German “RB Leipzig” in the 1/8 final of the Europa League.
At the end of November 2022, President of the Russian Football Union Alexander Dyukov said that the organization is considering moving to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The transition decision was to be made before the end of 2022, but on 30 December the RFU initiated the creation of a working group to engage with UEFA and other organizations regarding the return of local clubs and teams to participate in official tournaments. Discussion of the transition of RFU to AFC has been postponed.
On 22 June, Josef Klement, national federations adviser to UEFA’s national associations department, expressed at a face-to-face conference of the RFU that he hoped teams from Russia would soon be re-admitted to international tournaments.
“In the spirit of fair play, we believe that we will soon meet with Russian clubs and the national team at the international level. In the process, we have not cut our relations with Russia and established a dialogue. I am confident that we will overcome this challenge and continue to build bridges between countries and develop football,” RT Clement quotes.
Dyukov, at a press conference after the meeting of the executive committee of the RFU on June 22, said that the issue of the transition of the Russian organization to the Asian organization has not yet been closed.
We continue our consultations with UEFA on a possible move to Asia. We have decided not to comment until an agreement has been reached. There is the corresponding option, ”TASS quoted the words of the head of the RFU.