UFA and FIFA have excluded the football federation Russia from all competitions. This is the result of a meeting of the executive committee on Monday evening.
Even before that, UEFA had withdrawn St. Petersburg from the final of this year’s Champions League. The final of the premier league will now take place in Paris on 28 May (9pm). Also at the end of last week, the continental federation had decreed that Russian and Ukrainian teams – both clubs and national teams – must play their home matches on neutral ground.
Leipzig one round further in Europa League
With the decision now made, it is also clear that the round of 16 match between RB Leipzig and Spartak Moscow will not take place. The first leg should have taken place on 10 March (18.45) in Leipzig, the second leg on 17 March (21.00) on neutral ground. According to UEFA rules, there will be no successor team, Leipzig will thus enter the quarter-finals directly.
“Even though we believe that sport fundamentally unites, we understand and support this decision and hope that a peaceful solution to the conflict will be found soon,” the Bundesliga club commented in a first club statement.
No other clubs in Russia are affected by the exclusion this season. Apart from Spartak Moscow in the Europa League, no Russian club has qualified for the knockout rounds in the Champions League or Europa Conference League.
Russia out of World Cup qualifiers and Nations League
The Russian national team will thus not be able to take part in the Nations League, and they will also be out of the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the year. In Group B2 of the Nations League, the opponents would have been Albania, Israel and Iceland. In addition, Russia will not be allowed to compete in the World Cup qualifiers and will therefore miss out on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. As things stand today, Poland around Bayern’s Robert Lewandowski would then already be one round further.
Russia not in the Women’s European Championship
The decision will also have an impact on the Women’s European Championship in England in July. Russia would have been group opponents of the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland. The latter, along with numerous other associations, had previously announced a boycott of Russian matches
