Russia appeals against Uefa sanctions rejected in TAS

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected on Tuesday (15) the request by the Russian Football Federation to provisionally suspend the sanctions imposed by UEFA against Russian clubs and teams due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Thus, teams from Russia remain excluded from European competitions until a final decision on the appeal is made. The CAS has promised a decision “by the end of the week” on the possible suspension of sanctions taken by FIFA.

At the moment, Spartak Moscow remains excluded from the Europa League and the women’s team suspended from Euro-2022 in England.

As for the merits of the appeal, “the CAS arbitration process continues. The parties have not agreed to an expedited procedure and a hearing has not yet been scheduled”, says the Lausanne-based body, without specifying the reasons for its decision.

On February 28, in a joint statement, UEFA and FIFA decided to exclude Russian teams from international competitions due to the invasion of Vladimir Putin’s army in Ukraine, applying the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee.

Football authorities kept the legal motivations for this decision a mystery, which led the Russian Football Federation to resort to sporting justice.

UEFA mentioned in a letter to its federations the “serious concerns about the ability to guarantee the safety of all”, as well as the closure of airspace.

For Russian football, the harshest sanction is the exclusion, determined by FIFA, from contention for a vacant 2022 World Cup in Qatar, which removed the country’s team from the playoffs it had to play at the end of March.

The CAS must decide in the coming days whether to maintain or lift that sanction, a particularly thorny decision as Russia’s rivals have shown their refusal to stand up to them.

For now, FIFA has directly classified Poland, which should face Russia, for the decision for the vacancy. The Poles will face the winner of Sweden v Czech Republic.