MOSCOW, February 7. /TASS/. Alexander Ceferin, the president of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), has a positive attitude towards Russia and wants the country to remain a member of the European football organization, a senior official with the Russian Football Union (RFU) said on Wednesday.
"I have spoken with Ceferin and his stance is as follows - 'I don’t want to let Russia go; this is the last thing that I want to do,'" RFU Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov said in an interview with Russia’s Sport-Express daily.
"He [Ceferin] has a positive and warm attitude towards Russia," he said.
Mitrofanov also said that UEFA would like to see Russian football teams play at the international level despite pressure on the organization to keep them out.
"UEFA blocked the participation of our national teams and clubs from international competition, but a similar move was made by the International Football Federation (FIFA), therefore the participation of the RFU in official matches was blocked globally and not just in Europe," he said.
"A [possible] change of the confederation would not open the FIFA block as it is not the Golden Key that guarantees opening the door to official competitions," Mitrofanov stated. "A dialogue is underway and if we had never initiated this dialogue we would have never reached an agreement with UEFA on initial steps to bring Russia back and things would be totally different."
In mid-December, members of the RFU Executive Committee voted at their session against the country becoming a member of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
"UEFA is trying to bring back Russian clubs, but the organization is facing pressure from other national associations," Mitrofanov said. "This pressure is quite tangible at the moment and UEFA doesn’t want to take a stand and bring about a conflict. Perhaps, they are not ready for it."
"However, since the dialogue is underway, the RFU believes it’s important to continue it," he added.
Russia’s football ban
The International Association Football Federation (FIFA) announced on February 28, 2022 that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from taking part in FIFA tournaments.
In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision in regard to the Russian national football team’s participation in UEFA tournaments.
Both FIFA and UEFA cited Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine as grounds for their respective bans on Russian teams’ participation in competitions.