The desire of officials from the aggressor country to involve teams from the temporarily occupied Crimea in competitions in the Russian Federation did not go unnoticed by the Ukrainian Football Association. Over the past six months, the UAF has repeatedly responded to such shameful initiatives, reiterating its position in official letters to FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA President Alexander Čeferin.
"We have brought to your attention the details of the latest illegal actions of the Russian terrorist state and the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian state and football, in particular, attempts to integrate football clubs from the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine into the regular national championships of Russia.
Recently, open sources reported that FC Sevastopol from the temporarily occupied Crimea received a certificate to participate in the second league of Russia (third national division). The relevant decision was made at a meeting of the Russian National Football League. It is also noted that Russian officials plan to involve other teams from Crimea in their competitions - TSK-Tavria, Rubin and Ocean. All of these teams come from the territory that was granted special status by UEFA in 2014.
Allowing such actions actually demonstrates disregard for the position and decisions of FIFA and UEFA, tolerance for the war crimes of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and disregard for human rights and the laws of the civilised world.
In this regard, the UAF insists that FIFA and UEFA consider this illegal process of takeover of Ukrainian football entities by Russian stakeholders, take measures and seek opportunities to prevent the development of this process in the future. We also appeal to FIFA and UEFA to consider the possibility of revoking the membership of the Russian Federation in FIFA and UEFA due to the proven non-compliance with the requirements of the statutes of the governing bodies of world and European football and the values of the world football family," the UAF's June letter reads.
