Information has appeared in the media about the possible holding of the tournament under the auspices of UEFA on the territory of the terrorist country - Russia. On this account, the UAF applied to UEFA for clarification. The letter addressed to the Secretary General of the organization Theodore Theodoridis, in particular, says:
“We were especially concerned about the recent news on the RFU website (Russian Football Union, - ed.) and local media that Russia will host a football tournament among youth teams under the auspices of UEFA. The competitions are defined as part of the UEFA development program for holding tournaments for boys and girls under 16 years of age. “In May 2023, the UEFA International Development Tournament for youth teams is scheduled to be held in Volgograd. An agreement to host the tournament was reached with UEFA a few months ago," the relevant publication says.
Taking into account the unequivocal position of UEFA regarding the war in Ukraine and a number of decisive measures taken by the FIFA Council and the UEFA Executive Committee, such as the decision to remove Russian teams (both national teams and club teams) from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions, taken in the first days of the war, and the equivalent provisions for the next 2022/2023 season, adopted later, during the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee in May 2022 - if the said statement of the RFU is true, this tournament will be the first international event held in the aggressor country since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, condemned by the entire civilized world, and in fact will be a violation of the sanctions justly imposed by FIFA and UEFA on Russia.
We sincerely believe that the RFU statement mentioned above is false, and we are asking for confirmation of this.”
