Court of Arbitration for Sport denies Russia request to freeze UEFA ban

A court has denied Russia’s request to freeze the Union of European Football Associations’ (UEFA) ban on its soccer federation clubs amid Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

“The President of the Appeals Arbitration Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has denied the request filed by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) to stay, for the duration of the CAS proceedings, the execution of the UEFA Executive Committee’s decision to suspend all Russian teams and clubs from its competitions until further notice (the Challenged Decision),” the Court of Arbitration for Sport said in a statement on Tuesday. 

CAS president Corinne Schmidhauser also said that all Russian teams should be banned from participating in competitions until further notice, meaning that Russia’s men’s national team World Cup qualifying match against Poland later this month will be canceled. 

According to The Associated Press, Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic’s national teams refused to play against Russia amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 

FIFA, the world’s governing soccer body, recently awarded a bye to Poland national team last week, the AP reported.

Schmidhauser noted that Russia’s full appeal to freeze both FIFA decisions is “likely to be issued at the end of this week.”

This comes shortly after the UEFA, along with FIFA, announced last month that it has suspended Russian national teams and clubs from competing in its tournaments. 

“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine,” the statement read. “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.”

Although Russian teams are prohibited from competing in tournaments, its women’s national team had qualified for the EURO 2022 tournament and legal proceedings are likely to be be resolved before the tournament begins on July 6, the AP noted.