Four years after the World Cup, Saint Petersburg was preparing to host the most important match of European club competitions, the Champions League final, on May 28. UEFA decided on Friday to move the venue for the match to Paris and could take another important decision in the coming days, on the breaking of the contract with Gazprom, one of its main sponsors, with an estimate of around 40 million euros per year.
Sochi is symbolic of Russia’s ambition to make a name for itself internationally through sport. It was the venue for the Winter Olympics in 2014 and hosts the Russian Grand Prix from Formula 1but the race scheduled for September 2022 was canceled by the category, seven months after its dispute.
The American team Haas, for its part, decided not to wear the Russian colors of its sponsor Uralkali on its single-seaters. The future in Formula 1 of Nikita Mazepin, the son of a Uralkali manager and who was to drive one of the two Haas cars, is also up in the air.
The FIFA has not yet made a decision on the planned matches in Russia. But the Polish Football Federation went ahead, to the great satisfaction of its star Robert Lewandowski, and announced that he will not play on March 24 against Russia in the semifinal of the World Cup playoff that was due to play in Moscow. The Swedes, who could have to face the Russians on March 29 in the final, also announced this Saturday that they will not play against that team.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel acknowledged on Friday that the Ukraine situation “disturbs” his club, which is owned by Russian oil businessman Roman Abramovich. The millionaire is not currently subject to the sanctions decided by London against a series of Russian interests, but his case has been cited in Parliament and in the press.
Chelsea are not the only English club with Russian ties. Manchester United announced on Friday that it had “revoked” its sponsorship contract with the airline Aeroflot, which was banned from British airspace. In Germany, Schalke 04 removed the Gazprom logo and name – their sponsor – from their shirts.
The IOC, usually reluctant to comment on geopolitical issues, has called on international sports federations to cancel or relocate all planned events to Russia or Belarus. He also requested that the flags of these two countries not be raised and that their anthems not be played, estimating that the Olympic truce, which was to last until a week after the Winter Paralympics (March 4-13), was violated.
In accordance with that appeal, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced the cancellation of all its competitions in Russia between now and the end of the season for “the safety of all participants”. Without waiting for that announcement, Norway (the first country in the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games medal table) and Sweden had warned that they would not send competitors to these tests.
Also following the request of the IOC, the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) decided this Saturday to veto the anthems and flags of Russia and Belarus in the World Cup events of their sport. On the contrary, although the Ukrainian biathlon team informed the IBU that it will not participate in any of the remaining events of the season, “the Ukrainian flag will be hoisted at the events to honor the Ukrainian team,” the body explained.
The Volleyball World Cup (August 26-September 11) has not been withdrawn to Russia for now but it seems very much at risk. France, current Olympic champion, announced this Saturday that it will not participate in the tournament if it is not canceled or relocated to another country. Shortly before, its great star Earvin Ngapeth had already expressed the Gallic sentiment on Twitter: “Without me, thank you.” Russia, one of the powers of this sport, lost the organization of the matches of the group stage of the Women’s League of Nations in Ufa (June 28-July 3) and the men’s in Kemerovo (July 5-10).
The Swedish government called this Saturday for a comprehensive exclusion of Russia from all sports competitions by countries in the European Union. The Norwegian and Swedish Federations reported that Russian athletes were not welcome on their territory for next month’s events.
British Home Secretary Ptriti Patel has warned that “national teams from countries complicit” in the invasion of Ukraine will not be welcome in Britain. The visas of the Belarusian basketball players, who were due to play a game on Sunday in Newcastle, have been cancelled.
The Nantes handball club announced on Saturday that it refuses to host Moscow’s Chekovskie Medvedi next week. The European Handball Federation (EHF) indicated in a statement that it “takes note” of the French club’s decision and that the “consequences” will be known shortly.
The Russian clubs participating in the Euroleague basketball (Zenit St. Petersburg, Unics Kazan, CSKA Moscow) will have to play their home games abroad in the tournament.
In football, UEFA also decided that, until further notice, the matches of its competitions scheduled in Russia will be played elsewhere.
Source: Ambito
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