Russia loses appeal against FIFA and UEFA decision to ban teams from competition

An appeal against the exclusion of Russian national teams and clubs from world and European competition has been dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA and FIFA imposed a ban on Russian participation in their tournaments on February 28, days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.

The Football Union of Russia (FUR) and a group of Russian clubs appealed to CAS against the ban, but CAS announced on Friday that those appeals had all been dismissed.

Six appeals were lodged in all – one by the FUR against FIFA and one by the FUR against UEFA, and one each from four clubs against UEFA – Zenit St Petersburg, FC Sochi, CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Moscow.

All were dismissed by a CAS panel which heard them via video conference on July 5 and 11.

A CAS statement explaining the dismissal said: “The panel determined that the escalation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and the public and government responses worldwide, created unforeseen and unprecedented circumstances to which FIFA and UEFA had to respond.

“In determining that Russian teams and clubs should not participate in competitions under their aegis while such circumstances persisted, the panel held that both parties acted within the scope of the discretion granted to them under their respective statutes and regulations.”

The statement continued: “The panel found it unnecessary to characterise the nature of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but only to focus on the consequences of such conflict for the competitions affected.

“The panel finds it unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players have themselves no responsibility, had, by reason of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA,