Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has upheld UEFA’s ban on Russian teams taking part in its competitions while CAS continues to deliberate on the matter.
Football governing authorities FIFA and UEFA decided together that all Russian teams, whether national or clubs will be suspended from participation in FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian Football Union (RFU) had appealed to Court of Arbitration for Sport against the suspension but the president of the Appeals Arbitration Division denied a request to lift the ban until CAS takes a final decision.
“The challenged decision remains in force and all Russian teams and clubs continue to be suspended from participation in UEFA competitions,”.
The decision means that Spartak Moscow will still not play their Europa League match against club RB Leipzig, allowing the German club to advance to the quarter-finals unimpeded.
The ruling, however, only applies to UEFA competitions, with Russia still looking to overturn a FIFA ban that would allow them to take part in World Cup qualifying playoff matches scheduled for the end of this month.
Russia were scheduled to host Poland in a World Cup qualifying playoff on March 24. If Russia remains suspended at that time, they would be out of the World Cup in Qatar in November.
The Polish FA had already refused to play against the Russian national team with their captain Robert Lewandowski being the most vocal of them all. The Czech Republic and Sweden, who are in the same playoff path, had also ruled out facing Russia due to the ongoing crisis.
