Champions League final set to move from St Petersburg, Sebsatian Vettel boycotts Russian GP

UEFA will no longer host the Champions League final in St Petersburg after Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine on Thursday, according to reports. 

An extraordinary meeting of the UEFA executive committee will be held on Friday to discuss the geopolitical crisis, with officials set to confirm the May 28 showpiece game will be taken out of Russia, a person with knowledge of the process said on Thursday.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private talks.

UEFA did publicly rebuke Russia and said it was dealing with the «situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency» while confirming the meeting for 8pm AEDT on Friday.

«UEFA shares the international community's significant concern for the security situation developing in Europe and strongly condemns the ongoing Russian military invasion in Ukraine,» the governing body said in a statement.

«We remain resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people.»

As Russia's threats toward Ukraine had grown through the week, the British government and fan groups had already called for the final not to be played in St Petersburg, where the stadium is sponsored by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.

The company is also the main sponsor of Schalke, but the German second-division club said on Thursday the Gazprom logo was being removed from its jerseys.

A senior Gazprom executive also quit the supervisory board of the Gelsenkirchen-based club after being a target of US sanctions. Matthias Warnig is CEO of the newly built but never operated Russia-to-Germany Nord Stream 2 pipeline which is a multi-billion-dollar project of Gazprom and European companies.

Critics said Schalke was used to