In international football, no teams from Russia are allowed to play until further notice.

Because of the war of aggression against Ukraine, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed complaints by the Russian Football Association against FIFA and UEFA, as well as objections by four Russian clubs.

The highest sports court based in Lausanne published a corresponding judgment on Friday.

Both the world football association FIFA and the European football union UEFA had suspended Russian national and club teams in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

Unprecedented circumstances

As a result, Russia's men's national team was no longer allowed to compete in the World Cup qualifiers and was also excluded from the Nations League.

The women's selection was replaced by Portugal at the current European Championship.

Against these sanctions, the Russian association as well as Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Sochi, CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Moscow went before the CAS.

In its decision, the sports court explained that the escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, as well as public and government reactions, presented unprecedented circumstances for FIFA and UEFA.

They should have reacted to that.

The measures were within the framework of the prescribed statutes and regulations.

Therefore, the arbitral tribunal did not have to deal with the nature of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, but only with the consequences for the competitions.

Safety first

It is unfortunate that the military operations are having such consequences for Russian teams, clubs and players who are not responsible for them, CAS said.

However, the need to be able to hold football events in the rest of the world safely and in an orderly manner weighs more heavily.

Russia's men's national team should have played against Poland in the World Cup playoffs in March.

However, the selection around Robert Lewandowski refused shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine at the end of February.

Following the FIFA decision, Poland went into the decisive match against Sweden without a game and qualified for the World Cup finals in four months' time with a 2-0 win in Qatar.

In most other sports, too, Russian athletes and teams are currently banned from participating in competitions because of the Ukraine team.

The ban also affects athletes from Belarus, which is allied with Russia.