The Ukrainian Football Association said Monday it would formally ask that international action be taken against both the Russian Football Union and the Iranian national team over the two countries’ involvement in the war.
The executive committee said it would call on FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to expel the Russian Football Union after officials in Moscow said they planned to integrate soccer clubs in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine into the Russian league structure.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko last week told President Vladimir Putin that the four regions occupied during the war by Russia — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk – will be incorporated into regular Russian football competition.
“All this is being done to make the new regions feel like full-fledged Russian participants,” Chernyshenko told Putin, according to an Oct. 24 Kremlin readout.
In February, FIFA and UEFA indefinitely suspended Russian national teams from international competition, which includes the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Ukraine’s soccer association wants the governing bodies to go a step further by banning Russia’s membership entirely.
The Ukrainian Football Association also said it will urge FIFA to consider excluding the Iranian national team from the World Cup. It said it would make the appeal on the grounds of “systemic human rights violations," U.N. Security Council resolutions on sanctions on Iran and the “possible involvement of Iran in the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine.”
Russia is believed to have used Iranian-made drones in attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in recent weeks.
The executive committee said it would call on FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) to expel the Russian Football Union after officials in Moscow said they planned to integrate soccer clubs in illegally annexed regions of Ukraine into the Russian league structure.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko last week told President Vladimir Putin that the four regions occupied during the war by Russia — Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk – will be incorporated into regular Russian football competition.
“All this is being done to make the new regions feel like full-fledged Russian participants,” Chernyshenko told Putin, according to an Oct. 24 Kremlin readout.
In February, FIFA and UEFA indefinitely suspended Russian national teams from international competition, which includes the upcoming 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Ukraine’s soccer association wants the governing bodies to go a step further by banning Russia’s membership entirely.
The Ukrainian Football Association also said it will urge FIFA to consider excluding the Iranian national team from the World Cup. It said it would make the appeal on the grounds of “systemic human rights violations," U.N. Security Council resolutions on sanctions on Iran and the “possible involvement of Iran in the military aggression of Russia against Ukraine.”
Russia is believed to have used Iranian-made drones in attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine in recent weeks.
