Amid the ongoing invasion in Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA announced Monday that all Russian teams will be suspended from participation in all competitions until further notice.
The decision comes just weeks before the Russian national soccer team was set to compete against Poland in a single-leg semi-final for the chance to go to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Fox News reports.
The announcement comes just a day after FIFA said that Russia would not be eliminated from qualification, but rather play using the RFU acronym for the country’s soccer federation.
“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine,” the FIFA and UEFA stated. “Both Presidents 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.”
In addition to the team being suspended from international competitions, UEFA’s inclusion in the joint announcement signaled the halt of Russian club teams from playing in European cup competitions like Champions League and Europa League.
UEFA also announced that the soccer organization would terminate its partnership with Russian majority state owned energy corporation Gazprom.
“UEFA has today decided to end its partnership with Gazprom across all competitions. The decision is effective immediately and covers all existing agreements including the UEFA Champions League, UEFA national team competitions and UEFA EURO 2024,” the announcement on Twitter read.
