Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk chief calls for removal of Russia from FIFA

Russia's football federation to be removed from FIFA and UEFA membership. Serhiy Palkin, CEO of Shakhtar Donetsk, winners of four of the last five Ukrainian championships, told Reuters that Russia should be removed from sports organisations in the same manner as apartheid-era South Africa. Russian clubs and teams are currently suspended from competing in international competition but the Russian Football Union (RFS) remains a full member of FIFA and UEFA.

FIFA holds its annual congress in Doha on Thursday. Ukraine's federation is not expected to be able to attend the gathering but the RFS is likely to be present. "I would like to urge UEFA and FIFA to take a step further and cancel or suspend Russia's membership in their ranks," Palkin told Reuters in a text message.

"In the 70s, South Africa was expelled from FIFA for the policy of apartheid, and Russia should be expelled for the policy of genocide of Ukrainians and the bloody war they unleashed in our homeland," he added. "Sport has always been used by Russians as propaganda for their ideology. If this ideology threatens peaceful coexistence today, Russia must be fully isolated until it changes its policy of destroying every living creature," said the Shakhtar official.

Since the outbreak of conflict in the Donbas region in 2014, the Donetsk club has been forced to play their home games Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv. The Ukrainian league is currently suspended due to the war. "The club and all Ukrainians need peace, it’s necessary to stop this crazy war," said Palkin.