Russian national team, club teams banned from FIFA, UEFA competitions

On Monday, UEFA and FIFA have jointly (and expectedly) added to the growing list of economic and sporting sanctions against Russia, for their invasion of Ukraine, by banning any club teams and their national team from international competitions ... until further notice.

The Russian national team were due to play Poland in a World Cup qualifier in a few weeks, with the winner then moving on to play the winners of Sweden vs. Czech Republic for a place in the November finals. FIFA initially wanted to only address the situation in the manner of the IOC and Russia’s doping violations in various sports (i.e. Russia in all but official name), but all three potential opponents already made it very clear that they would refuse to play if that were the case, so FIFA relented and threw Russia out. It’s unclear if they will be replaced by the next best qualifier (Turkey?) or if Poland get a bye.

Meanwhile, UEFA have thrown out any remaining Russian club teams from European competitions, at least for the rest of this season, which means that RB Leipzig advance to the Europa League quarterfinals on a walkover against Spartak Moscow. Sorry, Victor Moses and former Chelsea assistant, Paolo Vanoli, who took over as head coach in just December!

UEFA have now also broken unilaterally with main sponsors Gazprom, ending their partnership worth about €40-50m with immediate effect.