Punished by the invasion of Ukraine, Putin’s country will not be able to aspire to organize the European Championship in 2028 or 2032
UEFA confirmed on Monday what was already an open secret, the exclusion of Russia from any football event, whether in the field of its national teams, or organizational, as a result of the invasion of Ukraine. In this way, the governing body of continental football rules out the country presided over by Vladimir Putin from the possibility of hosting the European Championship in 2028 or 2032 and maintains the veto on Russian teams and their national teams to be able to compete in the next campaign.
The Executive Committee of the body chaired by the Slovenian Aleksander Ceferin has taken refuge in taking such a firm sanction against Russia in the cumbersome article 16.02 of the Tender Regulations for the UEFA Finals and Final Phases, where it is established, verbatim, that ‘ each bidder shall ensure that it does not act in a way that could bring UEFA, the UEFA final or UEFA final tournament, any other bidder to the tender procedure or European football into disrepute’.
Likewise, UEFA considers that, given the uncertainty that exists about when the suspension on Russian football will be lifted due to the war in Ukraine, the acceptance of the Russian Federation’s candidacy to organize a European Championship “would also go against” the decision adopted last February, when it suspended all Russian teams and clubs from continental competitions. However, the UEFA Executive Committee clarifies that it will analyze the legal situation and events as they evolve and will adopt new decisions as necessary.
Turkey enters the scene
In this way, Turkey and the joint candidacy of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland will be the candidates to organize the European Championship in 2028, while Turkey and Italy will compete for the one in 2032.
In addition, UEFA will not allow the participation of Russian men’s and women’s teams in its competitions in all competitions in the 2022-2023 season, whether in the Champions League, the Europa League or the Conference League. A measure that also affects the different teams based in Moscow.
In this sense, Portugal will replace Russia in the final phase of the Women’s European Championship in England this summer, while Hungary will complete the ‘Final Four’ of the Women’s Futsal European Championship next July with Spain, Portugal and Ukraine.
Likewise, the Russian team will not participate in the next edition of the League of Nations either and will be relegated to League C, while the men’s U-21 team has been definitively eliminated from the qualifying phase for the 2023 European Championship, where Spain was drawn.
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