Russian clubs and national team excluded from football due to recent events

Due to the recent invasion of Ukraine, ordered by Vladamir Putin, the people of Russia have been excluded from several privileges, now including football outside their own country.

Yesterday, FIFA and UEFA reached an agreement that Russian clubs and the Russian national team have been suspended from all competitions due to the recent conflicts.

UEFA and FIFA released a statement saying:

'FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice.'

'Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all people affected in Ukraine.'

Vladimir Putin, who's the leader of Russia, announced the invasion of Ukraine five days ago. The conflict has been happening for decades due to how geographically close the two countries are, the histories with communism and Putin's obsession with exceeding power.

Over the last few days, the armed forces of the Russian Federation have struck numerous missiles towards Ukrainian airports, Army bases and cities, resulting in innumerable fatalities of troops and the Ukrainian people. The armed forces of Ukraine and countries of the world have not backed down, resulting in people travelling to Ukraine to defend against Russia's acts of war and power.

Recent social media has been jam-packed with updates of the current situation that's putting so many at risk. The saddening current events are being shared all over the media and people are showing sympathy and remorse towards the Ukrainian army and defenceless civilians who are currently dealing with the reality.

Ukrainians have recently been migrating out of the country to escape the dangerous living conditions that there currently dealing with.

A majority of Russians did not want this to begin with and are against the plans of Putin. Sadly, as Putin is the leader of the country and declares what happens, the Russians are having numerous amounts of Privileges taken from their hands and are having to deal with the consequences and repercussions.

Robert Lewandowski reached out to Twitter to voice his opinion on the decision FIFA & UEFA agreed on:

'It is the right decision! I can't imagine playing a match with the Russian National Team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues.'

'Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can't pretend that nothing is happening.'

People retaliated to the opinion of Lewandowski though, as Poland beat Isreal 4-0 whilst there was a conflict between Israel and Palestine back in 2019.

People argue that war has been happening in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Jordan, Libya, Iran etc. for a while, but as soon as the conflict is in a European country, people start to take it seriously. People argue that Russia has been banned from all these privileges when the US/NATO have been dropping missiles and bombs on the countries listed above for ages, and hardly anything has been done about it.

Another argument amongst the people of football is that FIFA recently banned Zimbabwean and Kenyan federations because they don't want government politics in sport, yet there bringing politics in the decision they've made against Russia. People see this as hypocritical.

Addidas have also decided to suspend making Russia's national team kits. They've created kits for both the Men's and Women's national teams since 2009, but due to current events, they have decided to suspend the deal. UEFA has also ended its partnership with Russian energy corporation Gazprom throughout all competitions, including the Champions League, national team competitions and EURO 2024.

Because of the suspension FIFA and UEFA have installed, the Russian men's national team will not compete in their World Cup qualifier next month. Because of this, they could end up missing the Qutar 2022 World Cup entirely.

Many people don't agree with the suspension as they believe that you shouldn't mix politics with football, as they are two completely different things and it isn't necessarily needed. But the views of people will not change the suspension FIFA and UEFA have put in place.

Action has been taken against Russian companies, organisations and businesses, resulting in a loss of profit. Also, companies from around the world have suspended Russians from using their services because of the conflict with Ukraine.

Because of the privileges that have been withdrawn from the Russians, Putin could take action using warfare or a cyberattack, meaning the war that is slowly brewing could end with devastating consequences for more people than just the Ukrainians.