Nikita Sidorenko, a sports lawyer and junior specialist of the Ilya Skoropashkin law firm, has explained in detail what threatens Russian football due to the inclusion of Crimean clubs in its championship.
- Crimean clubs will play in the FNL. Is it possible that the RFU will be excluded from UEFA because of this?
- As of today, four so-called Crimean football clubs (Yalta, Rubin, Tavria, Sevastopol) have been certified to play in Russia's third strongest national football championship next season. Whether they will decide to make their debut in the national championship 404 after UEFA reminded the Russian media about the ban on Crimean clubs to play under the auspices of the RFU is an open question.
However, according to Article 8 of the UEFA Statutes, a member association may be expelled from UEFA if it:
a) has failed to fulfil its financial obligations to UEFA;
b) has seriously breached the Statutes or a regulation or decision adopted thereunder;
c) has lost its qualifying status as a representative national football association;
d) has been refused or expelled from FIFA membership.
The decision to expel a national association is taken by the UEFA Congress and must be supported by the votes of at least 3/4 of the Congress members, with at least half (28) of the total number of Member Associations present at the meeting.
Now it seems that UEFA has taken a "wait-and-see" position and is watching whether the Crimean clubs will decide to violate the decision of the UEFA Extraordinary Commission of 22 August 2014, which remains in force. By the way, the next UEFA Congress will be held on 8 February 2024 in Madrid.
- If, for example, the Russian Federation moves to an Asian confederation and Russian clubs go to Asian tournaments, will their sanctions be nullified?
- FIFA sanctions remain with the member association regardless of its membership of the confederation. As for the sanctions from UEFA, there is no mechanism for maintaining or nullifying sanctions when the continental affiliation of a national association changes.
However, according to the meaning of Article 22 of the FIFA Statutes, in case of a change of membership in the confederation (in this case from European to Asian), the Russian union will have to receive an official "opinion" from UEFA regarding the change of their football and geographical affiliation. Would UEFA provide a positive opinion if sanctions were imposed? I think the answer is obvious.
- Will new sanctions be imposed against the RFU for including these under-clubs?
- In all likelihood, yes. And then either UEFA/FIFA will go from "the least to the greatest", which is more typical for them: a ban on holding even friendly matches/tournaments on the territory of the Russian Federation, a ban on international transfers and stopping various payments for the development of football, or immediately, as provided for by the provisions of the Statutes, which we mentioned earlier - exclusion from FIFA membership.
- Will it be possible to invalidate the whole "Russian football championship" through the court on the basis of the inclusion of under-clubs?
- The organisation of national championships remains the responsibility of the national member associations. Moreover, we are talking about the participation of so-called clubs in the third strongest division of the national championship, which is of little interest to UEFA or FIFA. In the mentioned Decision of 22 August 2014, it is only about the fact that UEFA will not recognise the results of matches where the so-called clubs from Crimea will play under the auspices of the Russian Federation.
Regarding the non-recognition of the results of one or all levels of the national championship is out of the question, because even in the mentioned Decision UEFA clearly showed its position: "UEFA does not want to prevent clubs from playing football", and there are no legal grounds for this. And the invalidation of the results of the championship, in fact, makes it pointless to hold any matches.
However, if the rfc is excluded from UEFA or FIFA membership, their championship will automatically become invalid for the entire civilised world.
- Why does FIFA not fully join the UEFA sanctions?
- It is not quite correct to divide the scope of the sanctions in this way. UEFA is a member of FIFA, and accordingly, in many ways UEFA's more specific sanctions are often a consequence of FIFA's decisions.
For example, there is a decision of the FIFA Council Bureau, which stood up in its entirety before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, according to which all rfc teams or other rfc affiliates are suspended from participating in FIFA competitions until further notice and until the situation improves enough for rfc teams to be allowed to participate again. As a consequence, the UEFA Executive Committee makes a mirror decision about the UEFA competitions. Potential sanctions against the Russian Federation are accurately worked out in the joint work of the European and international levels.
- What is the time frame for sanctions against the Russian national team and clubs at the international level?
- In the aforementioned CAS judgement, the Panel of Judges agreed with FIFA's position that the suspension is provisional "until further notice and until the situation improves to such an extent that rfc teams or rfc-affiliated teams can be re-admitted to competition" and very much hopes that, in the interests of the world football community as a whole, circumstances will develop in such a way that the suspension can be properly lifted.
I hope that such a "notice" does not appear before the Ukrainian government is informed of Ukraine's complete victory.
- Why are there no sanctions against Fenerbahce, Crvena Zvezda and Neftchi, who have now travelled to Russia for the tournament?
- The tournament taking place in Russia is a friendly tournament, it has no official status and, moreover, it was approved by UEFA. Unfortunately, the positions of international football federations are not known for their rigidity and unambiguity, and even more so when even a friendly tournament can be of financial interest to all parties.
- Why are foreign players not banned from joining Russian clubs?
- In football there is an international principle "a footballer must play". It should be said that such a ban actually becomes a sanction not only for the clubs of the country 404, but also for foreign players, whose freedom of choice of place of work is thus restricted (no matter how ridiculous it may sound to us).
Nevertheless, this type of sanctions is very likely in case the decision to play the so-called Crimean clubs under the auspices of the rfc is implemented, because then these illegal clubs will also be able to make international transfers, according to the regulations of the russian federation.
- How can Russian clubs (including those that are state-funded) sell/buy players abroad. How do they circumvent financial sanctions?
- Basically, the mechanism remains the same, but now they have a reduced choice of banks through which they can make transfers, because many Russian banks have been disconnected from the SWIFT international transfer system, and checks from foreign banks have been intensified. Also, there are known cases when clubs banal open accounts abroad. And finally, for sure, at least in the documentary aspect, such clubs are supported by UEFA or FIFA.
Andriy Piskun