MOSCOW, December 26. /TASS/. Presidents of the world and European governing football federations, FIFA and UEFA respectively, say they lack the authority to bring Russia back to international play, Russian Football Union (RFU) Secretary General Maxim Mitrofanov said in an interview with TASS on Friday.
According to Mitrofanov, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and UEFA President Alexander Ceferin have recently been very cryptic in their statements on Russia’s global-level reinstatement.
"Both of the presidents have been rather veiled, saying that the powers of the football authorities are insufficient to implement this decision [to reinstate Russian national teams]," the Russian football official stated in response to a question about when Russia’s national teams would be back playing at international tournaments.
"I believe that they are waiting to see which side the United States falls on," Mitrofanov noted. "And don’t forget where the main sponsors of these federations are located."
The 2028 UEFA Euro Cup will be hosted by England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales between June 9 and July 9. The qualifiers for the quadrennial European football championship will be played in 2027.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States. The matches will be staged in 16 cities across the three countries. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams instead of the previous 32-team format.
Russia’s football ban
The world’s governing football body, FIFA, announced on February 28, 2022, that the Russian national team and all professional clubs representing the country were barred from participating in FIFA tournaments.
In turn, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) made a similar decision regarding 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.