Gianni Infantino, president of FIFA. /
war in the east
The invasion of Ukraine will also lead to the expulsion of Spartak Moscow from the Europa League
FIFA will exclude Russia from all international competitions, which means the team coached by Valeri Karpin will automatically be out of the race for the World Cup in Qatar. Echoing the call made this Monday by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in any type of tournament, the governing body of European football has taken another step in blocking the country that it directs with a fist of iron Vladimir Putin within the battery of reprisals launched by the invasion of Ukraine and will not allow him to dispute the playoff tie that he had pending with Poland on March 24.
FIFA has been under pressure since Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic announced that they would boycott Russia in the World Cup play-off in Qatar as a result of the aggression against Ukraine. The body headed by Gianni Infantino initially reacted by agreeing on Sunday that Russia would play its matches on a neutral field and behind closed doors, without an anthem or flag, and only under the shield of its federation until further notice. But he also warned Russia that its participation in the World Cup, even in the case of overcoming the playoffs, would not be guaranteed if the European Union and the high international institutions decided to increase the pressure and extend the sanctions as a consequence of the invasion of Ukraine.
But events accelerated this Monday, when the IOC issued a harsh statement recommending the exclusion of Russia and Belarus from all competitions, urging that their representatives only be accepted, in any case, “as neutral athletes or teams.” . At the same time, UEFA called an emergency meeting to increase its artillery deployment against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Among the planned measures is the expulsion of Spartak Moscow from the Europa League. This means that Leipzig, the rival who had assigned last Friday’s draw to the Muscovite team in the round of 16 of the second continental competition, will qualify directly for the quarterfinals.
The Spartak, out of Europe
Like FIFA, UEFA had already determined that Russia and its teams could not play international matches within the borders of their country, forcing them to hold them on a neutral field. For this reason, Spartak weighed Yerevan (Armenia) and Baku (Azerbaijan) as possible locations for the second leg of the Europa League round of 16, scheduled for Thursday, March 17. But the body headed by the Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin has decided to go further and apply maximum force by vetoing the presence of Spartak in a competition in which it was the only Russian representative still alive, after Betis dropped Zenit Saint Petersburg in the Round of 16 playoff. Spartak had been exempted from participating in that round, having come out of the first phase as first place in Group C, ahead of Napoli, Leicester and Legia Warsaw.
In this way, the group trained by the Italian Paolo Vanoli, currently fourth in the Russian league and emblem of Putin’s army as it was in Soviet times, will suffer a harsh sports sanction and will leave Leipzig, executioner of Real Sociedad in the previous phase of the Europa League and which has the Spaniards Angeliño, Dani Olmo, Hugo Novoa and Josep Martínez in its ranks.
The conversations and meetings between the various levels have been incessant in recent hours and FIFA has had no choice but to attend to the general outcry against Russia. Following the line marked by Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic, England and Wales also expressed their refusal to compete with Russia while the war in Eastern Europe continues, while Denmark went further and advocated the “exclusion of Russia from All the sports”. In this way, Russia will be separated from the route to the World Cup in Qatar, which will be held between November 21 and December 18.
