Court of Marcel Rizzo dismisses appeals and Russian clubs are excluded from Champions League 07/15/2022 09:54

The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) rejected the objections of the Russian Federation and four Russian clubs to suspend the penalties imposed by FIFA and UEFA, which ban national teams and national teams at all levels (men, women and youth). participation in international tournaments – the reason was the military attack of the Russian government on Ukraine.

With this, teams from Russia will not be able to qualify for the Champions Leagues, Europe and Conference and the Russian team will be excluded from the Nations League and for now there is no start date yet for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers. .

Zenit, Sochi, Dynamo Moscow and CSKA Moscow entered CAS against UEFA to request a permanent suspension of the sentence. The Russian federation has already activated the European Union, as well as FIFA. The court found that the two confederations acted within their own rules by suspending national teams and clubs from international activities.

In the decision, the members of the court wrote that “they find it regrettable that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian teams, clubs and football players are not responsible, have such an effect due to FIFA and UEFA decisions”. negative for them and for Russian football in general, but these effects, in the opinion of the TAS, outweighed the need for the safe and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world”.

Russia was excluded from the World Cup in Qatar when it was banned from playing in the European playoffs – it would face Poland in March. The women’s team was prevented from participating in the final stage of the Eurocup, which is currently underway in England, and was replaced by Portugal. The team also failed to qualify for the Women’s Cup qualifiers to be held in Australia and New Zealand in 2023.

FIFA also created a mechanism that allows players playing in Russian and Ukrainian clubs to temporarily suspend their contracts to play in teams from other countries – in Russia this can be done without the club’s approval. This exception has been extended until the end of June 2023.