{"id":746585,"date":"2026-02-06T16:19:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/746585\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:19:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:19:22","slug":"eu-calls-foul-on-fifas-russia-reinstatement-bid-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/746585\/","title":{"rendered":"EU calls foul on FIFA\u2019s Russia reinstatement bid \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Commission has voiced opposition to Russia\u2019s reinstatement in international football, following FIFA\u2019s announcement that it was ready to lift the ban imposed in 2022 after Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Commission spokesperson for sport Eva Hrncirova said on Friday (6 February) that peace was a fundamental value of international competitions, including the Olympics and was a principle that Russia failed to uphold.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cRussia is still on the Russian aggression against Ukraine,\u201d she said, echoing previous statements by European sport commissioner Glenn Micallef, who pushed back at the idea of allowing Russia back into the international football league.<\/p>\n

\u201cLetting aggressors <\/a>return to global football as if nothing happened ignores real security risks and deep pain caused by the war,\u201d said Micallef earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The comments come on the heels of recent proposals by FIFA president Gianni Infantino to lift the international ban on Russia amid claims it has done nothing good.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has just created \u200dmore frustration and hatred,\u201d he told<\/a> Sky News in an interview. <\/p>\n

He had earlier faced criticism for giving US president Donald Trump a peace prize last December, which he has since defended.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Infantino\u2019s suggestion has sparked outrage in Ukraine, whose sports minister, Matvii Bidnyi, said that Russian flags and national symbols had no place on the world stage.<\/p>\n

The Russian ban currently extends to the World Cup that is taking place later this year in USA, Canada, and Mexico. <\/p>\n

The last time the Russian team played was in 2018, when they hosted the global competition.<\/p>\n

It had also hosted the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014, amid a massive state-sponsored doping scandal. The cheating saw Russia stripped of 51 Olympic medals.<\/p>\n

But pressure for their reinstatement now also appears to be mounting in International Olympic Committee (IOC).<\/p>\n

IOC president, Kirsty Coventry, without name checking Russia, has publicly said all athletes should be allowed to participate regardless of their governments. This drew a round of support from Russia IOC member Shamil Tarpischev.<\/p>\n

Some 13 Russian athletes and seven from Belarus will be taking part in the Winter Olympics in Milan, also on Friday, but bearing neutral colours.<\/p>\n

The IOC says each has been vetted over any possible support for Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine. <\/p>\n

\u201cAthletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies will not be eligible to be entered or to compete,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n

While solo competitors from both nations may participate under a neutral banner, team events such as ice hockey remain off-limits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Commission has voiced opposition to Russia\u2019s reinstatement in international football, following FIFA\u2019s announcement that it was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":746586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,218484,218481,218479,218482,218480,218483],"class_list":{"0":"post-746585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier24","13":"tag-identifier4308","14":"tag-namerussia","15":"tag-nameukraine","16":"tag-termcoderussia","17":"tag-termcodeukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116024597889146712","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=746585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/746585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=746585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=746585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=746585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}