{"id":787441,"date":"2026-07-08T17:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787441\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T17:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T17:45:11","slug":"uefa-could-block-russia-returning-to-football-in-potential-new-clash-with-fifa-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/787441\/","title":{"rendered":"Uefa could block Russia returning to football in potential new clash with Fifa | Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Uefa is prepared to block the return of Russian teams to international football after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) provisionally lifted the country\u2019s suspension<\/a> from global competition.<\/p>\n

Fifa has indicated it will review its position after imposing a ban on Russian teams in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago. It said on Tuesday that it would \u201canalyse the decision before deciding on next steps\u201d, and Uefa\u2019s stance sets up another potential clash<\/a> with the world governing body.<\/p>\n

Uefa has yet to comment but sources at several national associations have said there is no realistic prospect of Russian sides being welcomed back into European football, and by extension the World Cup, because, although that is a Fifa tournament, European qualifying is run by Uefa. Many of the biggest western European associations and federations, including in England, Germany and France, remain vehemently opposed to Russia\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

Uefa was forced to abandon plans to bring back Russian sides to youth events three years ago after a backlash<\/a> from at least a dozen of its members, and does not want a repeat. Uefa\u2019s president, Aleksander Ceferin, is seeking re-election next year, so is unlikely to risk alienating much of his electorate.<\/p>\n

Fifa is more open to readmitting Russia. Gianni Infantino has made clear he would welcome the country\u2019s return<\/a>. The Fifa president remains close to Vladimir Putin, having worked with him to stage the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and helped to facilitate a Russia under-15s boys\u2019 team competing at a youth World Cup in October in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

Infantino told Sky News in February that Fifa<\/a> would look at reintegrating Russian teams. \u201cThis ban has not achieved anything, it has just created more frustration and hatred,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Even if Fifa took the radical step of permitting Russia to enter World Cup qualifying via another confederation, as is the case with Israel, who compete in Europe, that may not solve the issue because European teams could threaten a boycott if Russia reached the World Cup.<\/p>\n

The Russia issue could open another major faultline between the two most powerful organisations in world football, who clashed publicly this week after Fifa\u2019s disciplinary committee took the unprecedented step of lifting Folarin Balogun\u2019s suspension before the USA\u2019s last-16 World Cup defeat by Belgium. Uefa<\/a> accused Fifa of crossing \u201ca red line\u201d that undermined the integrity of the World Cup, which led its counterpart to hit back with accusations of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n

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The IOC\u2019s decision to lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee, in place since October 2023, paves the way for its athletes and teams to compete at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Only 27 athletes from Russia competed across the 2024 Summer Games in Paris and the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Games after a vetting process to ensure they did not publicly support the war on Ukraine, but with this scrapped several hundred Russians could compete in the LA Games.<\/p>\n

The IOC has made clear that individual sports have discretion to make their own decisions regarding Russia and there is no possibility of them competing in football in 2028 because the qualification tournaments have already begun. Uefa declined to comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Uefa is prepared to block the return of Russian teams to international football after the International Olympic Committee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-787441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}