Russia football sanctions: Why team is still playing despite Fifa and Uefa ban

It has been reported Russia could withdraw from Uefa in favour of joining the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).

In 2023, Russian Football Union (RFU) president Alexander Dyukov attended the AFC congress in Bahrain, in order to discuss the possibility of Russia switching from European to Asian football.

But later that year the RFU voted not to make the change, instead opting to set up a working group to devise a plan to return to European competition.

Asia’s competitions, like the international Asian Cup and AFC Champions League, are nowhere near as financially lucrative or prestigious as their European counterparts.

If the war in Ukraine were to end, though, Russia could be brought back into the mainstream international football fold immediately.

“When the war stops, they will be readmitted,” Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said earlier this year. “The first decision was done together with Fifa. I think we will [overturn] it together when we do it.”

Fifa president Gianni Infantino, who was awarded the Russian Order of Friendship medal by president Vladimir Putin after Russia hosted the 2018 World Cup, has expressed a desire to see the team back on the global stage.

“As talks are going on for peace in Ukraine, I hope that we can soon move to the next page, bring back, as well, Russia in the football landscape because this would mean that everything is solved,” Infantino said.

“That’s what we have to cheer for, that’s what we have to pray for – because that is what football is about. It’s not about dividing, it’s about uniting girls, uniting boys, uniting people from wherever they are.”

A return to Fifa and Uefa competition would also mean Russian domestic clubs being allowed back into future editions of the Champions League, Europa League, Conference League, and potentially the revamped Club World Cup.