The FIFA Council decided to admit Russian teams under the age of 17 to international competitions.
The Ukrainian Football Federation UAF categorically condemned the relevant decision of the UEFA Executive Committee and a similar decision of the FIFA Council.
Extensive allegations and allegations regarding the inadmissibility of taking such decisions are set out in the UAF’s official appeal to FIFA, UEFA and national UEFA member associations.
The UAF is also calling on all national federations to boycott the aggressor country’s attempt to return its teams to international competitions.
Call from UAF to FIFA and UEFA
This decision is completely unexpected, given the strong position of UEFA and FIFA that all Russian teams have been banned from all competitions under the auspices of these organizations since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. At the time, UEFA made clear that this decision was necessary to achieve its legal objectives of promoting football in Europe in the spirit of peace and organizing and conducting football tournaments in a way that respects the health of players. The heads of both organizations expressed their “full solidarity with all affected people in Ukraine” and expressed their hope that the situation in Ukraine “will improve significantly and quickly, so that football will once again become a vector of unity and peace between people.”
However, as the whole world knows, the pain of the Ukrainian people has increased since then and continues today. Although we fully support any action aimed at helping children, this decision ignores the suffering of Ukrainian children. Russian soldiers continue to kill and kidnap Ukrainian children and destroy civilian infrastructure, including thousands of schools and hundreds of stadiums and sports facilities, thus destroying the opportunities for Ukrainian children not only to play sports but also to live a normal life.
Since the beginning of the large-scale occupation, hundreds of children, from newborns to teenagers, have been killed, thousands more injured, and more than 3,000 criminal cases have been opened against children, including crimes of sexual violence. At least 19 thousand children were kidnapped from Ukraine and taken to Russia. Survivors and those left behind, missiles and bullets continue to fly overhead, are forced to spend hours in cold underground bomb shelters and have few opportunities to enjoy the Russian U-17 players living and training in a warm, safe and quiet environment. cities.
We point out that this war violates the rights of Ukrainian children, and not Russian children, whose only problem is the lack of experience in participating in international competitions in Europe.
During the hearing of the Russian Football Federation’s appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), UEFA made it clear that, given the general public opinion regarding the invasion of Russia: “UEFA considers it irresponsible to place Russian athletes, regardless of their age, in such a tournament .” a position where they could face serious harm physically but also in other forums, including social networks. UEFA considers the latest decision to be “irresponsible” as the situation has worsened over the last 18 months.
In the CAS case, UEFA also made clear that member associations’ refusal to play against the Russian team threatened the integrity of the competition and that the expulsion of Russian teams was “necessary” to achieve legal objectives.
Following the latest decision, the Ukrainian Football Federation called on all UEFA member associations to boycott all matches against Russian teams. Such a boycott was officially announced by the football associations of England, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Norway and Romania. Some other countries (Switzerland, Czech Republic, Netherlands and Estonia) have made it clear that they expect further clarification from UEFA. UEFA’s own reasoning implies that its legal objectives require the final decision to be reversed.
We believe that football should always be on the side of peace, tolerance and justice in all kinds of competitions between countries.
We call on FIFA and UEFA to resist the violence and arbitrariness of the Russian Federation. “We will resolutely adhere to this stance until the end of the war in Ukraine and the establishment of peace on the European continent.”
