Nice words about protecting Russian children from discrimination turned out to be empty talk.
Just two weeks ago, the UEFA Executive Committee appealed to the leadership of the union with a request to restore the rights of the Russian youth teams and allow them to participate in international tournaments.
Today, this decision was blatantly reversed, which once again proved the hypocritical nature of the organization responsible for football in Europe.
UEFA is not independent. Not free to make decisions. And he completely lost his dignity.
Words are worthless
British Sky News journalist Rob Harris said that UEFA had not found “a technical solution to allow Russian teams to play on the world stage.” He previously gave information that the organization is trying with all its might to persuade countries boycotting Russia’s admission. Apparently, the negotiations ended unsuccessfully. And UEFA didn’t come up with anything better than to cancel their own initiative, thereby showing complete spinelessness.
But UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin spoke such beautiful words about the inadmissibility of discrimination against Russian children. It turned out that all this turned out to be a dummy. But this is the Union of European Football Associations – an office that should have a lot of weight and not rotate like a weather vane from external influences. In the end, it turned out that the usual threats of boycotts from not so many countries led to the cancellation of the decision.
Let us recall that in many other sports the threats of Russophobes did not bring results, and Russian athletes calmly performed at major international tournaments, including world championships. It’s not very clear why UEFA even thought of all this. They couldn’t help but understand what the initiative to return the Russian youth teams would threaten them with.
Alexander Ceferin / Photo: © Mike Egerton – PA Images / Contributor / PA Images / Gettyimages.ru
What to do next?
However, one shouldn’t be completely surprised by UEFA’s hypocrisy. There, our athletes were among the first to be suspended, even before the relevant recommendations of the International Olympic Committee. The European organization happily kicked Valery Karpin’s team out of the play-off tournament for the right to go to the World Championships in Qatar. The West was not interested in the principles of fair struggle then, and is not interested now. Everything is banal and predictable.
Let’s also remember the wonderful story about UEFA Vice-President and head of Swedish sports Karl-Erik Nilsson, who voted for the admission of Russian youths. He was so neglected both at home and in Europe that he had to leave an important post in Sweden, thus losing his job. Even tearful apologies did not help Nilsson.
Head coach of the Russian national team Valery Karpin admitted that he did not expect the UEFA decision on youth teams to be reversed. However, he didn’t look completely surprised. But other people from Russian sports spoke out in a much more harsh manner.
— Initially I said that the solution was ambiguous because it was physically impossible. The things that I meant came to light: UEFA is unable in this political situation to solve the problems associated with boycotts from different countries and the refusal to play with the Russian national team,” former national team player Andrei Arshavin told Match TV.
“An organization like UEFA must be sovereign, independent and committed to football. This is such a humiliating decision towards our children, our youth teams! They discredited themselves with this decision. It turns out that they are not so independent and are committed to the disgrace that is happening to sports now,” Match TV quotes the ex-head coach of our team Anatoly Byshovets.
As always, Dmitry Guberniev spoke precisely and unambiguously.
— UEFA showed that they are weaklings. In other words, they pissed themselves off. You allowed Russian children to participate in competitions, and now you threw them out… Because they are unscrupulous people! It’s a shame,” said the Match TV commentator.
Now that everything has become completely clear, Russian football needs to work out an alternative strategy of action. Obviously, there is no point in relying on the mercy of UEFA and FIFA. At least until the political situation changes. Friendly matches with foreign teams and clubs are a good and correct practice, but how long can we maintain the level of football in such situations?
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2023-10-10 14:14:14
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