Statement of the UAF Executive Committee to European Associations and UEFA

03.04.2025 15:06

The Executive Committee of the Ukrainian Association of Football has sent an official letter to representatives of all European national football associations and UEFA.

«Dear Colleagues,

Hereby we address UEFA and the entire European Football Family on behalf of the Ukrainian Football Association and the whole Football Community of Ukraine.

First and foremost, we extend our respect and appreciation for your constant support and assistance provided during the recent years.

We do are grateful to the Football Family for the prompt response at the beginning of the full-scale cruel war unleashed against our country by russia, namely, for the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee and FIFA Council taken in February 2022 to suspend Russian teams, both national teams and clubs, from participating in all international competitions and to further keeping the teams of the aggressor country excluded from international football for the recent 3 years.

In the meanwhile, regretfully, during these years the issue of reconsideration of this decision has been raised already for a couple of times, as well as the attempts have been made to achieve partial abolition of this restrictions, in particular, the readmission of the russian youth teams U-17 to participation in the international competitions. 

By this letter, we appeal to you with the call for unacceptability and inappropriateness of the discussions and consideration of this issue in the conditions of still lasting aggression of the russian federation against Ukraine. Since February 2022, the military aggression of the russian federation has been constant and ongoing, and the present day, unfortunately, does not show any obvious preconditions to conclude that it will be over soon.

The war continues to this day while the aggressor stays unpunished, daily taking the lives of Ukrainians — football players, coaches, referees, as well as dozens of thousands of ordinary citizens — children, women, the elderly, while being in their homes, hospitals, kindergartens, on the streets; destroying sports infrastructure and destroying entire cities.

Daily our country, our citizens, our children suffer from the air raids, followed by the missile and drone attacks. Daily dozens and thousands of people in different parts of Ukraine are killed. The genuine terror does not stop even for a moment and does not finish. The aggressor destructs all around. And it’s not only about the material things as infrastructure, stadiums, all kinds of constructions. It’s about LIFE. The coutry-agressor ruins, destroys and takes LIVES.

And NOTHING changed since February 2022 to serve as a reason for any reconsiderations of the decisions taken then.

By this appeal, we emphasize that the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee taken in February 2022 and prolonged later on, was fully considered and unequivocally fair, and remains completely relevant to the present day. The range of undeniable facts prove this.

Significant number of the European countries — UEFA mambers at the state level have made decisions not to hold competitions with representatives of the russian federation, as well as participating in such where russian teams are among the participants, understanding the reasonable security risks.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) in 2022 rejected the appeal of the Russian Football Union regarding the suspension of russian teams from competitions under the auspices of FIFA and UEFA, considering the hazard for the integrity of holding international competitions on condition of participation of russian teams, because many countries directly refuse to play against them.

In November 2022, the European Parliament, in its resolution declared russia to be a state sponsor of terrorism and a state that uses the means of terrorism.

Thus, the return of russians to competitions under the auspices of UEFA and FIFA threatens a split in the Football Family and as a result, imposes the integrity of these international competitions.

We draw your attention also to one more important aspect. Almost 20,000 children were illegally deported to the territory of the russian federation from the occupied Ukrainian territories. Due to this fact, the International Criminal Court in March 2023 issued arrest warrants for the top leadership of the russian federation for the illegal forced displacement of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to russia. If eventually these children are engaged to the russian football national teams in the competitions under the auspices of UEFA, this will automatically make the entire European football community an accomplice in the international crime.

Apart of the above, over the last 3 years we have been forced to address you repeatedly reporting on the cases of violation of the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee and the FIFA Council on the isolation of teams representing the russian federation, which straightly indicate the russians' contempt for the authority of UEFA and FIFA as the football governing bodies, as well as their disregard for the values ​​and position of the members of the European Football Family.

Moreover, the representatives of the russian federation cynically violate another UEFA decision — regarding the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and the inviolability of football clubs from these regions, as at the level of the parliament of the russian federation a decision was made and, consequently, a number of actions were taken that proceed the illegal integration of clubs from the Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions into the national championships of russia.

At the same time, no sanctions were imposed the RFU, the above-mentioned requests from the UAF were left unanswered, as well as russian clubs retain their average coefficient in European club competitions (as of 2022), due to which, without participating in these competitions, the RFU still receive the solidarity payments. Does that mean that the European Football Family is in solidarity with russian federation, as keeps making such payments for them?

So, we appeal to you to keep resilience and strength against speculation and pressure, and to put efforts to preserve your fair position untouchable by taking all possible measures to prevent the return of any russian teams to the international competitions of the European and world football community while the ongoing aggression.

In the same way as resistance and resilience preserve Ukrainian football. Ukrainian NA keeps working in the incomparably complicated conditions, and hold all our competitions. Because the Game possesses the unique strength. It is played even under shelling and during air raid alarm. We invite everyone to come and witness this by yourself.

For the sake of unity, for the sake of life, for the sake of football.

In our turn, please be convinced that we stay at your disposal, thankful for the invaluable support of the Football Family and proud of the great honor of being a part of it».