Russia will be isolated from sports

European soccer’s governing body on Friday voted to move this season’s Champions League final, the showcase game on the continent’s sporting calendar, to Paris as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The game, on May 28, had been scheduled to be played in St. Petersburg, in a stadium built for 2018 World Cup and financed by the Russian energy giant Gazprom, a major sponsor of the governing body, UEFA. It will take place instead at the Stade de France, in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. It will be the first time France has hosted the final since 2006.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/sports/soccer/champions-l…


Poland will refuse to fulfil their scheduled World Cup playoff against Russia next month in protest against the invasion of Ukraine, the president of Poland’s Football Association, Cezary Kulesza, said on Saturday. The decision was immediately backed by the team’s players, including their star forward Robert Lewandowski of Bayern Munich.

Sweden, a potential future opponent of Russia in the playoffs, later said they would also refuse to play them “regardless of where the match is played”.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/26/poland-will…


Formula One has cancelled the Russian Grand Prix after the state’s invasion of Ukraine and it has emerged there was likely to have been a mass boycott of the event by the drivers had it gone ahead. The sport did not issue any condemnation of Russia but cited the “impossibility” of holding the race under the current circumstances.

On Thursday Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, the four-times world champion, was the first driver to declare he would boycott the race if it went ahead. After F1 announced the cancellation it became clear his view was widely shared across the paddock.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/25/sports/soccer/champions-l…

Putin always make his ugly invasions after an Olympic Games (2008, 2014, 2022) has finished so that his Russian athletes are not banned.

Jaak

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Outstanding English Soccer club Chelsea caught up in Russia invasion business:

Roman Abramovich has passed the stewardship of Chelsea to the trustees of the club’s charitable foundation. The Russian, who bought the club in 2003, remains the owner but has relinquished the running of Chelsea after a call in parliament for him to be sanctioned amid the invasion of Ukraine.

Abramovich, provided he is not sanctioned, can continue to fund the club but the focus on him has provoked this move on the eve of Chelsea’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool. Abramovich has vehemently disputed reports suggesting his alleged closeness to Vladimir Putin and Russia or that he has done anything to merit sanctions being imposed against him.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/feb/26/abramovich-…

Jaak

In F1 as well, team Haas has removed sponsorship from Ukrali from the cars, and their Russian driver (son of the Ukrali sponsorship) will likely lose his seat as well.

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