UEFA bans Russian football clubs from all competitions

Portugal, initially defeated by Russia in a playoff, will replace the country at the Women’s Euro 2022 tournament scheduled for July in England, UEFA said.

Russia will not play their two matches scheduled in April for the European qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.

For the 2022/23 season, Russia will not have any clubs participating in the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Europa Conference League, UEFA Women’s Champions League or UEFA Youth League.

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Also, UEFA said Russia’s bid to host Euro 2028 or Euro 2032 has been ruled ineligible.

The Russian city of St. Petersburg had already been stripped of the right to host this season’s Champions League Final amid a number of sanctions imposed on Russia in March soon after its invasion of Ukraine began.

Those sanctions included an indefinite ban by FIFA, world football’s governing body, from international football and meant that Russia was expelled from the European playoffs for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.

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Numerous sporting organizations have banned Russian and Belarussian athletes from their competitions in the wake of the invasion, with the most recent high-profile sanction coming from organizers at Wimbledon, who banned tennis players from both countries from competing in this summer’s tournament.