Russian clubs and national teams have been suspended in all their football competitions until a later time by the FIFA and UEFA over the invasion of Ukraine.
This comes after Poland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic refused to play against Russia. Football’s world and European governing bodies, UEFA and FIFA, said on Monday that they had frozen all Russian club and national teams out of competitive fixtures until further notice.
“FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice,” a joint statement published on UEFA’s website said.
The news comes a day after FIFA announced that in light of the Russian invasion, no international football matches would be played in the country in the forseeable future. On Sunday, though, FIFA had said that Russia would still be allowed to continue with their World Cup qualifying campaign.
FIFA had also said Russia would have to compete in under the name “Football Union of Russia (RFU).” No flag or anthem of Russia was to be used in matches featuring the Russian team. FIFA had made that announcement a day after Poland became the first country to act.
“We can’t pretend that nothing is happening,” the country’s star striker Robert Lewandowski posted on Twitter.