This season’s Champions League final will be moved from St Petersburg but pressure remains on football to respond strongly to Russia’s military invasion as the crisis in Ukraine escalated on Thursday.
An extraordinary meeting of Uefa’s executive committee will be held on Friday and a new venue possibly chosen for the final of Europe’s most prestigious club match. A second difficult choice will follow soon after: whether to exclude Russian clubs from competition.
Fifa also found itself in the spotlight over World Cup qualification and Russia’s role in the play-offs on a day when:
• The football associations of Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden refused to travel to Russia for the World Cup play-offs.
• The Ukrainian FA called for Russia to be expelled from all Fifa and Uefa competitions.
• European parliamentarians wrote to Uefa demanding an end to their relationship with Russian company Gazprom, as the German club Schalke removed the gas company from their shirts.
• And the British government banned Aeroflot, a Russian airline that has a £40m sponsorship deal with Manchester United, from operating in the country.
After 48 hours of scrutiny over Uefa’s plans for a showpiece final at St Petersburg’s Gazprom Arena on 28 May, the governing body confirmed it would hold an extraordinary ExCo meeting “to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions” over the Ukraine crisis.
A decision to move the match from Russia is certain but further questions remain. Spartak Moscow are in the draw for the Europa League last 16 that is due to take place at midday GMT on Friday and Zenit St Petersburg were denied by a late VAR decision that would have forced extra time against Real Betis on Thursday night as they looked to join them. More contentious is Uefa’s longstanding and deep-rooted relationship with Gazprom, whose sponsorship of its competitions was extended last year.
Uefa said it “strongly condemns” the invasion and remained “resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people. We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency.”
The president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino, also condemned Russia’s use of force “and any type of violence to resolve conflicts”, and called for “a rapid cessation of hostilities and for peace in Ukraine”.
Infantino, speaking after a meeting of the Fifa Council, was unable to offer clarity on an increasingly complicated situation regarding next month’s World Cup play-offs, in which Russia and Ukraine are due to participate.
Poland are scheduled to play Russia in Moscow on 24 March and have expressed their concerns. After requesting information from Fifa two days ago, the Polish FA said it received no answer and on Thursday made a public appeal alongside the Swedish and Czech FAs, whose countries are due to play away on 29 March to face the winner of Poland’s tie.
All three countries said they would not travel to Russia. “The military escalation that we are observing entails serious consequences and considerable lower safety for our national football teams and official delegations,” they said. “Therefore we expect Fifa and Uefa to react immediately and to present alternative solutions regarding places where these approaching play-off matches could be played.”
Infantino said Fifa would “continue to monitor” the situation and issue updates soon.
The Ukrainian FA is expected to be given a window in which to decide whether to continue with its qualifying campaign. The country is scheduled to have a World Cup play-off in Scotland on 24 March, with the winners travelling to Wales or Austria. If Ukraine withdraw, Scotland could be given a bye, although it is understood the more likely option would be for the next best-placed qualifier, Finland, to take Ukraine’s place. On Thursday the Ukrainian FA urgently pressed Fifa and Uefa to remove Russia and its club sides from all international competition.
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While criticism of the invasion was consistent from outside Russia, there was also dissent from inside the country. Most notably, on Instagram, the Russia international Fedor Smolov posted a black square image with the caption “No war!!!”
Consequences of the invasion were felt further across sport. Days after dealing with another Russian doping scandal, the IOC confirmed Russia had breached “the Olympic truce” agreed between nations which compete during Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Rugby Europe postponed a fixture between Russia and Georgia due for the end of this month, and Fina, the governing body of swimming, and the FIVB in volleyball said they were “monitoring the situation” before world championships in Russia later this year. Sebastian Vettel called for Formula One to abandon this season’s scheduled race in Russia.
