With the development of the situation in Russia and Ukraine, European football has been greatly affected, and the three major competitions of the Champions League, europa League and World Cup have had to be adjusted.
Uchao stopped
According to the plan, after a two-month winter break, The Ukrainian Super will recover on the 25th. However, after Ukrainian President Zelenskiy issued martial law, the Ukrainian Football Federation announced a suspension of the league, which will last at least a month.
Dynamo Kiev boss Lucescu said, "I will not leave Kiev and return to Romania, I am not a coward. I want this war to stop as soon as possible, I never thought it would start. ”
Champions League, Europa League
UEFA announced that UEFA President Ceferin will convene a special meeting of the Executive Committee on the 25th, when the necessary decisions will be made. UEFA has announced that the Champions League final will not be played at st. Petersburg Stadium as originally planned.
In a statement, UEFA announced that "as the situation between Russia and Ukraine has evolved over the past 24 hours, the UEFA president has decided to convene a special meeting of the Executive Committee to assess the situation and take all necessary decisions." "If UEFA decides that the Champions League final continues on May 28, then Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadiums will not be able to host.
Meanwhile, UEFA has postponed the youth Champions League quarter-finals between Dynamo Kyiv and Sporting Lisbon, which was scheduled for 2 March in Kiev.
The Europa League is also likely to be affected, with Petersburg, Russia, on Thursday facing Real Betis in the second leg of the quarter-finals. UEFA may postpone the match and may even award Zenit a defeat.
UEFA has signed a sponsorship agreement with Gazprom (Gazprom), which has become the official partner of Euro 2020 and 2024 and is also a sponsor of the Champions League. At present, UEFA is considering the termination of the sponsorship contract.
In addition, according to the Mirror, Manchester United is also preparing to terminate its sponsorship agreement with Aeroflot, a russian airline. The company has been one of United's main sponsors since 2013.
world cup
According to the plan, Russia and Ukraine will participate in the World Cup qualifier play-offs scheduled for the end of March. Ukraine will play away to Scotland and Russia will play Poland at home, and it is unclear whether these two games will be played on time.
If Poland is defeated, then Russia will play against Sweden or the Czech Republic. On Thursday, the polish, Swedish and Czech republic football associations issued a joint statement announcing that they would not travel to Russia for the World Cup qualifier play-offs.
Swedish Football Association President Erik Nelson said: "The feeling when we wake up in the morning is that we can hardly imagine that we can play a game in Russia in a few weeks. Now, we definitely don't want to play a game in Russia. We think about what happened after our friends in Ukraine woke up, it was horrible. Football should be seen as something less important in this hellfire, and at the moment they have more to consider than football. ”