UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin spoke in an interview with The Guardian about the suspension of Russian clubs and national teams from all international competitions, which has lasted for almost two years, and also said what he thinks about the upcoming friendly match between the national teams of Russia and Serbia.
Alexander Ceferin- How much pressure is there to relax the existing ban for Russian teams?
The pressure only comes from the other side: to continue to keep Russian teams out. I have never experienced any pressure from Russia.
This ban will remain in place as long as the war continues. I am not happy about it because I feel sorry for the athletes, but everyone, including UEFA, should do everything possible to stop this madness.
As for Russian athletes not going against the government, it's you in the UK that can do that, or me in my country, but in russia you will just end up in jail if you make such a move, or worse. So Russian athletes are not easy to oppose and they are victims. The current situation is bad for athletes, it's bad for relations between people, but unfortunately we live in such crazy times. I'm very worried. What I see in geopolitics is frightening.
- Is there a contradiction in Russia's permission to hold the national team's friendly against Serbia in March, which will be their first match against a representative from Europe after the suspension?
- It's not in our jurisdiction. Serbia can play with anyone - against you, me and others. Legally, we can't do anything.
But why is this match such a problem? Why is it a problem that young people go to play football?
And nobody cares about this match: if you English people didn't talk about it, nobody would know about it. We in Slovenia don't even know that they are going to play each other, because people don't care about the things that English politics and the mainstream media often point out. Yes, they will play that one friendly match. So what?
