CAS has explained why it refused to lift a ban on Russia competing in international football
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has said that its decision to reject an appeal by Russia of their ban from competing in international football was due to concerns about theoretically damaging the integrity of international football if other nations refused to play matches with Russia.
The Russian Football Federation (RFU) suffered a suspension from the FIFA competition in the wake of the country’s military operation in Ukraine, but the RFU had requested that the World Cup governing body suspend the suspension pending a full hearing of the CAS, which would have allowed the Russian men’s team to play scheduled qualifiers for the WC 2022.
The football associations in Poland, Sweden and the Czech Republic – each a potential opponent of Russia – had outlined their refusal to play against Valeri Karpin’s team, regardless of the name or flag the team competed under.
Similar claims were made by both Malta and Montenegro, who would play the Russian women’s team.
However, the RFU appealed the decision on the grounds that a refusal of Russia’s right to play would harm the country’s football goals and damage its international rankings and sponsorship opportunities.
It also said that Russia would be happy to allow matches to be played without spectators and with improved security protocols – with RFU responsible for the bill for the latter.
FIFA, meanwhile, had claimed that other football nations that refused to play Russia could basically get the sport into disrepute – an opinion that was eventually shared by CAS.
“It is common ground that the complainant’s team has a legitimate interest in participating in FIFA competitions,“ came it governing from CAS Chair of the Appeals Board Corinne Schmidhauser.
“On the other hand, the division president agrees with FIFA that they have an undeniable interest in maintaining and ensuring the smooth and integrity of its competitions.
“Apart from UEFA, none of the other defendants have commented on the complainant’s request for provisional measures. However, the Polish, Swedish and Czech Football Associations have publicly announced their decision not to play against Russia.
“In other words, if the complainant’s men’s national team were to play, their opponents would lose the game and the matches would not even take place. The integrity of FIFA competitions would be seriously damaged..“
The CAS ruling also claimed that other nations would have legitimate security problems when it comes to playing in Russia.
“The division president further considers that the security of the opposing team, the players, the officials and the Russian players themselves take precedence over the interests of the complainant.,“ said the statement.
The complainant himself admits that “additional expenditure on security measures” would be necessary.
“In light of the worldwide outrage and condemnation caused by the events currently unfolding in Ukraine, it is doubtful whether enhanced security measures would be sufficient to ensure the safety of players, coaching staff and other team personnel..“
A proposal to allow Russia to play its matches and possibly remove and replace them from the World Cup at a later time was also rejected.
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But in response to Tuesday’s statement from the CAS, the Russian football authorities noted that they were still waiting for a final decision on the bans imposed by FIFA and UEFA.
“Today, CAS published the explanatory part of the decision to refuse to comply with RFU’s request for interim measures in the context of claims against FIFA and UEFA. This document is a complement to previously published decisions.” sa an RFU statement.
“At the same time, we would like to draw attention to the fact that the document does not concern the examination of claims against UEFA and FIFA in substance [of the decisions]. The process is ongoing, it is expected that hearings in CAS will be held in early May. ”
Source: sn.dk