Several European federations refuse to face Russia during qualifications for the World 2022, thus releasing the debate on the possible exclusion of the Russian team of the competition, or even the suspension of the Russian Federation by FIFA.
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The shock wave caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia of Vladimir Putin is in progress to weaken the powerful international football federation (FIFA) and its Suisseo-Italian president, Gianni Infantino. If he said, Thursday, February 24, “concerned” with a “tragic and worrying” situation, FIFA has, at this stage, made any decision on the Russian Federation.
From the first hours of Mr. Putin’s armies’ offensive, in the night of Wednesday, February 24, the Ukrainian Football Federation had asked FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA) to exclude national teams and Russian clubs from their competitions.
UEFA has, since, offwarned at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, the final of the Champions League, May 28, which was to take place in St. Petersburg. According to our information, the European authority is preparing, in the coming days, to break its contract with the Russian Gazprom energy giant, its sponsor since 2012.
The tension is mounted by a notch at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich since the Polish Federation announced on Saturday, February 26, that it gave up playing its game programmed in Moscow on March 24, facing Russian selection as part of the qualifications for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. This statement had a snowball effect: the Swedish and Czech federations also said that they would refuse to face the Sbornaya if it qualified for the final of the dams.
In this burning context, Gianni Infantino and FIFA will exclude national competitions organized by FIFA – including the World 2022 -, as suggested, Sunday, February 27, Christmas Le Graët, the President of The French Football Federation, and suspend the Russian Federation (RFS), even temporarily? Under the Statutes of the International Federation, the FIFA Council (Government) may suspend “provisionally” the Russian Federation, as recalls Jean-Loup Chapelet, Professor Emeritus at the University of Lausanne. This suspension must then be “confirmed” by the majority of three quarters of the 211 national FIFA congressional federations.
“Fundamental requirement”
In legal terms, FIFA specialists agree on one point: the International Federation is legally able to remove the Russian Federation if “Infantino has the political will”. For the Swiss lawyer Henry Peter, a specialist in the law of sport and professor at the University of Geneva, “the main foundation” of a suspension “must be the respect of the international rules on human rights and ethics, This includes respect for international conventions. This requirement is fundamental “. According to M e Peter, the FIFA could in particular rely on Article 3 of its statutes on the defense and promotion of human rights to sanction the Russian Federation.
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