Russia’s national team in a World Cup qualifier match against Cyprus in November 2021. After the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian team was expelled
Quelle: Getty Images/BSR Agency
Russian football is largely isolated after the invasion of Ukraine. The association is now considering leaving the European umbrella organization. Moscow is pursuing two goals with this move.
WWhen old friends don’t play with you anymore, you just look for new ones. Apparently that’s what those responsible in Russian football think. The Russian Football Association is advising on Friday about a possible exit from the European Football Association Uefa and a move to the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
“The question of leaving Uefa is related to the decision of the European and world football bodies (Fifa) on February 28, according to which Russian clubs and the national team were excluded from international competitions because of the situation in Ukraine,” the state news agency reported Cup to that.
The decision excluded Russia from the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup, and the country was also absent from the draw for the 2024 Euros qualifiers. The national team has only played three friendlies since the start of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine: against Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. All three ex-Soviet republics belong to the AFC.
Plans for an annexation league
On the one hand, Moscow hopes that a conversion will give its football teams more competition practice, on the other hand, such a step should demonstrate that Russia is not politically isolated. It is not known whether the Asian association would accept the Russians.
It was only in September that the announcement of a planned annexation league caused a stir. Deputy Sports Minister Odes Baisultanov announced the plan during a meeting in the embattled region of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Between March and November 2023, a championship is to be held for the first time, in which up to 14 teams from the two self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, the Crimean Peninsula annexed by Russia, the partially occupied Cherson and Zaporizhia districts and the republics that are also not internationally recognized Abkhazia and South Ossetia would take part.
The Ukrainian army has now been able to recapture at least the city of Cherson.
