In the end, Russian under-17 footballers will not participate in the qualification for the European Championship in October.
The executive committee of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) did not find a solution to allow the teams to play at today’s meeting in Nyon, Switzerland.
At the end of September, despite the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, UEFA decided to return the Russian youth teams to its competitions and began looking for a way to include them in the competitions, even if they had already been drawn.
However, this point was withdrawn from today’s executive session, which, among other things, decided on the organizers of the senior Euro for 2028 and 2032.
According to UEFA’s statement, no “technical solution” was found to include Russian teams in the qualifiers.
At least 12 of UEFA’s 55 member federations, including England, Ukraine and Sweden, strongly opposed the return of the Russians and stated that their teams would simply not play them in competitions.
The planned return of Russian youth footballers to competitions cost UEFA vice-president Karl-Erik Nilsson the position of chairman of the Swedish Sports Confederation (RF).
However, a week after UEFA’s decision, the International Football Federation (FIFA) canceled the exclusion of the Russian under-17 national team from world competitions.
