FIFA and UEFA have also suspended Russia’s national teams and clubs from international football until further notice due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move makes it likely that Russia will be excluded from this year’s World Cup and the women’s Euro 2020 tournament.
“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,” UEFA said in a statement.
“These decisions were adopted today by the Bureau of the FIFA Council and the Executive Committee of UEFA, respectively the highest decision-making bodies of both institutions on such urgent matters,” they added.
Russia were scheduled to host Poland in a World Cup qualifying playoff on March 24 and if they remain suspended at that time, they would be out of the World Cup and unable to progress to the finals in Qatar in November.
The Polish FA had said that they will refuse to play against the Russian team and the Czech Republic and Sweden, who are in the same playoff ‘path’, had also ruled out facing Russia.
The only way Russia could still feature in the playoffs would be a sudden improvement in the situation in Ukraine leading to a lifting of the suspension.
“Both Presidents (of the soccer bodies) hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people,” UEFA said.
Earlier on Monday, the International Olympic Committee’s executive board recommended sports federations to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from competing in events.
