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Crimean football clubs excluded from Russian championship’s second division

UEFA Secretary-General announced on December 4 that Europe’s football governing body prohibited three Crimean football clubs from competing in the Russian championship starting January 1, 2015

MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. The Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) decided at its session on Friday to exclude three Crimean football clubs from the competitions of the Russian championship’s second division, Olga Smorodskaya, the president of Lokomotiv Moscow FC, said.

UEFA Secretary-General Gianni Infantino announced on December 4 that Europe’s football governing body prohibited three Crimean football clubs, namely TSK Simferopol, SKCF Sevastopol and Zhemchuzhina Yalta, from competing in the Russian championship starting January 1, 2015.

UEFA also announced that the Russian Football Union (RFU) would not be subjected to penalties for placing the three clubs to the Second Division of Russia’s championship in the 2014/2015 season.

The European football union also announced that a special area would be set up in Crimea, where football would be developing under UEFA’s exclusive auspices.

Last July, the RFU permitted the Crimean clubs to undergo licensing by way of a decision to be taken by its bureau. They were included in the second division of the Russian championship.

The decision was challenged by the football federation of Ukraine and the UEFA passed an intermediary resolution on August 22. It said it did not recognize the introduction of the three Crimean clubs in the second division of Russia’s championship and ruled to hold an extra meeting of the parties concerned “to tap a common solution to the situation.”

Representatives of FIFA, UEFA, the RFU and the Ukrainian football federation had four meetings in September. A decision was made then to set up a working group that would be given the task of settling the awkward situation around football in Crimea, which reunited with Russia in March 2014.