Russian teams therefore remain excluded from European competitions until the appeal of the FUR is decided on the merits, while the sports jurisdiction promises a decision "by the end of the week" on the possible suspension of sanctions. taken by FIFA.

Concretely, Spartak Moscow remains banned from the Europa League – the club had already announced that it would focus on national deadlines -, and the women's selection excluded from Euro-2022 this summer in England, except for a final decision in the meantime.

On the merits, "the CAS arbitration procedure continues. The parties have not agreed on an accelerated procedure and a hearing has not yet been set", specifies the court based in Lausanne, without delivering the reasons for its decision.

On February 28, in a joint statement, UEFA and FIFA decided to exclude Russian teams from international competitions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, applying the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee.

The football authorities had kept the mystery on the legal motivations of this decision, pushing the Russian Football Federation to respond last week by seizing sports justice.

UEFA had only mentioned, in a letter to its federations, its "serious concerns about the ability to ensure the safety of all", due to the hostility to the Russians of certain federations and public opinion, and the closure of airspaces.

Spartak Moscow striker Victor Moses tries to get rid of the marking of Yuri Ribeiro of Legia Warsaw in the Europa League on December 9, 2021 in Poland JANEK SKARZYNSKI AFP / Archives

For Russian football, the most resounding sanction remains its exclusion by Fifa from the race for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (November 21-December 18), depriving Sbornaïa in advance of the play-offs it was to play at the end of March.

The CAS will have to decide in the coming days to maintain or suspend this sanction for the duration of the procedure – a particularly thorny decision since the opponents of the Russians are already refusing to face them.

For the time being, Fifa has directly qualified Poland, who should have met Russia, for the play-off final against the winner of the confrontation between Sweden and the Czech Republic.

© 2022 AFP