Russian sports minister reacts to Ukraine football exclusion demands

Football association in Kiev wants to see its Russian counterpart excluded from UEFA and FIFA

Ukraine is singing “old songs” by demanding that the Russian Football Union (RFU) be excluded from world and European governing bodies FIFA and UEFA, according to Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin.

The president of the Ukrainian Football Association (UAF), Andrey Pavelko, revealed on Facebook on Tuesday that his organization “will demand the exclusion of Russia from UEFA and FIFA.”

The UAF has sent an “immediate appeal” to FIFA and UEFA “with a demand to apply the most stringent sanctions against the RFU,” Pavelko revealed.

The action was in relation to a decision to allow clubs from the new regions of Russia and Crimea to compete in Russian football leagues.

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Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, plus the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, officially became parts of the Russian Federation last month when the populations of those territories voted overwhelmingly in support of the move in referendums.

Matytsin said that the UAF was singing “old songs” and that Russia is “aware of what colleagues from abroad are saying” about the matter.

“But we are absolutely confident in our development strategy, uniting strategies, strategies of consolidation, solidarity. That this is the main mission of sport – to be together. Everything that goes against this strategy, [that] destroys it, is unacceptable for us,” Matytsin added, as reported by TASS.

The Russian sports minister claimed that there are no unfriendly countries in sports and touched on the topic of Russia possibly holding competitions touted to take place between Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations.

“I don’t think that you need to make a choice where to turn,” he said. “We have a constructive dialogue with Asian countries as well.

“In sports, we have repeatedly said that there are no unfriendly countries, we hold many open tournaments, we invite everyone, but everyone makes a decision in accordance with the political situation in their countries.” 

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Russian teams and clubs are already banned from international football competitions by FIFA and UEFA after those organizations followed an International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendation to take such action when the military operation was launched in Ukraine in late February.

The advice was heeded by many other sporting federations as well, leaving Russia frozen out of the international sporting arena.