Governing Bodies
Russia invasion of Ukraine takes its toll on international sports
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was widely condemned by the sporting community on Thursday, with President Vladimir Putin’s country set to lose hosting rights for the Champions League final while Formula One drivers said it was “wrong” to race there this year.
Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine by land, sea and air on Thursday, sparking immediate sporting ramifications.
The Champions League final is scheduled to be held in St Petersburg in May but sources have told Reuters that European soccer governing body UEFA are set to move the match to another venue. UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has called an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Committee on Friday when the issue will be discussed.
The showcase match in European club football was set to be held at Zenit St Petersburg’s stadium — known as the Gazprom Arena after a sponsorship deal with Russia’s state energy company, which also sponsors the Champions League.
German soccer club Schalke 04 have had a 15-year partnership with Gazprom but said it was removing the firm’s logo from their jersey while Matthias Warnig, the chief executive of Nord Stream 2 AG, vacated his position on the club’s board of directors. Nord Stream 2 AG are owned by Gazprom.
Athletes from a number of sports also voiced their concerns about travelling to Russia.
Four-times Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel said he will not race at September’s grand prix in Sochi, adding it was “wrong” to race in Russia. Reigning champion Max Verstappen agreed with him.
“My own opinion is I should not go,” Vettel said. “I’m sorry for the innocent people that are losing their lives, that are getting killed for stupid reasons and a very, very strange and mad leadership.”
The sport’s governing body, like many others, said it was monitoring the situation, but said nothing about a potential move of the Russian Grand Prix.
The invasion was also condemned by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who said the Russian government had breached the Olympic Truce currently in effect until after next month’s Winter Paralympic Games.
MILITARY ESCALATION
A joint statement from the football associations of Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic called for next month’s World Cup playoffs not be played in Russia.
“The signatories to this appeal do not consider travelling to Russia and playing football matches there,” the statement said. “The military escalation that we are observing entails serious consequences and considerably lower safety for our national football teams and official delegations.
“Therefore, we expect FIFA and UEFA to react immediately and to present alternative solutions regarding places where these approaching playoff matches could be played.”
Poland are due to play in Russia on March 24 with the winners hosting either Sweden or the Czechs five days later.
EuroLeague Basketball, which has teams from several countries including Russia, said they would continue with the competition as scheduled unless governmental decisions prevent games from taking place.
“The 18 EuroLeague participating clubs will meet tomorrow to further analyse the course of events and take any necessary actions, if needed,” it said on Thursday.
However, Bayern Munich said Thursday’s EuroLeague match against CSKA Moscow was postponed at short notice.
The Swedish Ski Association said it was “completely unthinkable” to participate in any competitions in Russia, including the upcoming ski cross World Cup event.
“We have a ski cross national team in place in Russia right now and the safety of our athletes and coaches is the most important thing,” its chairman Karin Mattsson said.
The invasion has also impacted sporting events in Ukraine.
Soccer matches in Ukraine’s Premier League have been suspended due to the imposition of martial law in the country, leaving Shakhtar Donetsk’s Italian coach Roberto De Zerbi, his staff and 13 Brazilian players stranded.
“We could have gone home as long as there was security but instead we waited. Last night the explosions woke us up. This morning they suspended the season,” De Zerbi told Italpress.
“We saw rows of moving cars from our hotel windows – I think they’re headed to Poland. The Italian embassy urged us to leave but I couldn’t do it, eventually they closed the airspace and we’ll be staying here.”
Brazilian-born Ukrainian forward Junior Moraes said they were “prisoners in Kiev” while waiting for a solution to get out of the country. “Pray for us,” he wrote on Instagram.
-Reuters
A former member of the FIFA Council, Mamoutou Toure, has been released from jail in Mali after almost two years in detention for alleged corruption, Malian media reports said on Wednesday.
Toure, president of the Malian Football Federation since 2019, was released after 622 days in prison on Tuesday.
He served on the FIFA Council, world football’s all-powerful decision-making body, for four years until last month when he lost his seat after failing to contest new elections.
The 67-year-old was arrested in August 2023 on allegations of embezzling $28 million of public funds but was granted a provisional release order by the Malian courts, reports said.
He was accused of misconduct during his time as the National Assembly’s financial and administrative director from 2013-2019.
Toure denied all charges and, during his time in jail, was last August re-elected as Malian Football Federation president for a second consecutive term, with his supporters claiming he was a victim of a conspiracy fuelled by detractors.
While in jail, he received a letter of support from FIFA president Gianni Infantino. However, as of last month, Toure is no longer a member of the FIFA Council or the Confederation of African Football’s executive committee.
-Reuters
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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has denied reports of an outstanding debt to former captain Christian Chukwu and has challenged anyone with verifiable documents to prove otherwise.
Chukwu, a former national team captain and chief coach, died last Saturday.
The Nigeria Football Federation decried statements in a section of social media that the football-ruling body was indebted to the deceased.
Reacting to one statement on social media that claimed NFF owed the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations-winning team captain the sum of $128,000, NFF General Secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, said: “There is no record in the NFF of any outstanding indebtedness to ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu.
“During the first term of the Board headed by Amaju Pinnick, a committee was set up to diligently peruse the papers of coaches who were being owed, even from previous NFF administrations.
“That committee was given the clear mandate to verify all debts and ensure that the coaches being owed were paid immediately. I am aware that the ‘Chairman’ was in the employ of the NFF between 2002 and 2005, before he was relieved of the post following the 1-1 draw with Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match in Kano in August 2005. There is certainly no record of indebtedness to him in the NFF.”
Sanusi challenged anyone with genuine and verifiable documents of NFF indebtedness to any coach, who has worked with any of the National Teams over the past two decades, to come forward and tender those documents.
“As a credible organization that is very much alive to its responsibilities, if we are confronted with any genuine document of indebtedness to any coach, we will offset the debt immediately.”
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Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter and France soccer great Michel Platini were both cleared of corruption charges by a Swiss court on Tuesday, two and a half years after they were first acquitted of the offences.
The pair, once among the most powerful figures in global soccer, were cleared of fraud at the Extraordinary Appeals Chamber of the Swiss Criminal Court in the town of Muttenz, near Basel.
The hearing came about after Swiss federal prosecutors appealed against their 2022 acquittal at a lower court.
Both men had denied the charge which related to a 2 million Swiss franc ($2.26 million) payment Blatter authorised for Platini in 2011.
The court said there were doubts about the prosecution’s allegation the payment for Platini, a former captain and manager of the French national team, was fraudulent.
The 2022 indictment had accused Blatter and Platini of deceiving FIFA staff in 2010 and 2011 about an obligation for world soccer’s ruling body to pay Platini.
“They falsely claimed that FIFA owed Platini, or that Platini was entitled to, the sum of 2 million Swiss francs for advisory work. This deception was achieved through repeated untruthful claims made by both accused parties,” the indictment said.
But the court cleared the pair, saying their account of an oral agreement for the payment could not be ruled out.
Platini had argued that the payment had been partly deferred until 2011 because FIFA lacked the funds to pay him in full immediately.
The court said the pair had both been consistent in their accounts of the payment, which covered consultancy work carried out by Platini for Blatter between 1998 and 2002.
Platini’s experience as a top footballer and coach, explained the size of the payment, said the court, which followed the legal principle that in cases of doubt, favour the accused.
“It can not be assumed that the defendants acted with the intention of enriching themselves in the sense of the charged offences,” the court said.
The scandal, which emerged in 2015 when Platini was president of European soccer’s ruling body UEFA, ended his hopes of succeeding Blatter, who was forced out of FIFA over the affair.
Blatter and Platini were suspended from football in 2015 by FIFA for ethics breaches, originally for eight years, although their exclusions were later reduced.
Platini said he was relieved the case was over, and he had received messages of support from 10,000 people.
“The persecution of FIFA and some Swiss federal prosecutors for 10 years is now over,” Platini told reporters. “It is now totally over. And for me, today, my honour has returned and I am very happy.”
The 69-year-old said he thought the case had been intended to prevent him becoming FIFA president, but he was now too old to return to football.
The money, which had been confiscated and held by the Swiss authorities, can now be returned to him.
A frail-looking Blatter hugged his daughter Corinne after the judgement and said he was relieved with the decision.
“It is a great relief for me because it’s been going on for ten years. It’s like a sword of Damocles hanging over my head,” he told reporters.
“And now it’s over and I can breathe,” the 89-year-old said.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 20 months in jail, suspended for two years for both Blatter and Platini.
The Swiss attorney general’s office said it would review the written judgement, before deciding whether to appeal again to the Swiss Federal Court, the country’s highest legal authority.
-Reuters
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