UEFA decided on Friday that the Champions League final, originally scheduled for Saint Petersburg, will be played at the Stade de France. The Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix has been cancelled. Strong gestures, like new replies from the world of sport to Russian aggression.
While the Russian army is advancing on Kiev, the world of sport – bodies, federations and athletes – is showing itself to be intransigent with regard to the Kremlin, despite the political and financial stakes. UEFA, which had condemned “firmly the military invasion” of Russia in Ukraine, showed the muscles, with the support of the French president. Under international pressure, the European body decided on Friday to move the Champions League final, scheduled for Saint Petersburg, to the Stade de France. In a press release, UEFA thanked Emmanuel Macron “for his personal support and his involvement in ensuring that the most prestigious match in European football is moved to France, in a moment of unprecedented crisis”.
The Kremlin ruled “shame” that Russia be deprived of this event and ensured that “St. Petersburg might have provided the ideal conditions for holding such a football festival.” For Boris Johnson, it was inconceivable that the Champions League final would be played in Russia. The British Prime Minister had declared on Tuesday that there was no “no chance of holding football tournaments in a Russia that invades sovereign countries”. The Union of European Football Associations has also decided that the matches of Russian and Ukrainian teams (clubs and national selection) can no longer be played on their territories for the moment. All matches under the authority of UEFA will be played on neutral ground. For its part, the German club Schalke 04 (D2) has decided to remove the name of Gazprom, the Russian gas giant and main sponsor of the club, from its shirts.
F1, basket, rugby, ski
Another major decision, the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, scheduled for September 25 in Sochi, has been canceled, the F1 promoter believing “impossible to organize the Grand Prix of Russia in the current circumstances”. Formula 1 world champions Max Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel had already announced their boycott. In other disciplines, several meetings or competitions have been postponed. In basketball, Euroleague matches involving Zénith Saint-Petersburg, CSKA Moscow and Unics Kazan have been postponed.
“We are not going to Russia next week. I have already announced it to my players and my staff. It goes beyond sports. said French basketball legend Tony Parker, president of Asvel. “We cannot accept the situation which is totally contrary to our values. Sending our team to Russia is out of the question.” Asvel was to face Zenith on March 1. FC Barcelona also refused to travel to Russia on Thursday to face Zenith. In rugby, the Six Nations B Tournament match between Georgia and Russia, scheduled for Sunday in Tbilisi, has also been postponed.
After the boycott of several athletes, the International Ski Federation announced on Friday the cancellation of all its competitions planned in Russia by the end of the season. As for the Men’s Volleyball World Championship, which is to be held in Russia on August 26, the Polish government has suggested moving.
«Stop war»
These symbolic decisions, in response to the Russian attack in Ukraine, are in addition to numerous condemnations from the sports world. As soon as Vladimir Putin recognized the pro-Russian people’s republics of eastern Ukraine on Monday, Ukrainian professional athletes warned of a possible invasion. Ukrainian football legend Andrei Shevchenko, national team captain Andriy Yarmolenko, tennis player Elina Svitolina-Monfils or Manchester City player Oleksandr Zinchenko all recalled their attachment to their country, calling on Europeans to “pray for Ukraine”.
On Thursday evening, one of the most famous of them, Atalanta Bergamo player Ruslan Malinovskyi celebrated his goal by showing a t-shirt with the message «No war in Ukraine» (“No war in Ukraine”). He then received support from his club and tens of thousands of fans on Twitter.
In another European encounter on Thursday, FC Barcelona and Napoli players posed behind a banner «Stop war» (“Stop the War”) before kick-off. Those of the Czech club Slavia Prague, which has two Ukrainian players in its workforce, entered the field with shirts in the colors of Ukraine, flocked with the slogan «We stand with Ukraine» (“We support Ukraine”).
In the United States, it was the basketball players of the Sacramento Kings who held a minute of silence in solidarity with their Ukrainian teammate Alex Len and his people. On the Russian side, one of the only athletes to have reacted is the international footballer Fedor Smolov. “No to war”, he wrote in a short Instagram post, followed by a Ukraine flag and a broken heart. His compatriot Andrey Rublev, seventh world tennis player, pleaded for “the peace” following his victory in the quarter-finals of the Dubai tournament.
Additional sports sanctions once morest Russia might be taken in the coming days, the International Olympic Committee, which “Strongly condemns the violation of the Olympic truce”, in effect until seven days following the closing of the Paralympic Games in Beijing (March 4-13), set up a task force to assess the situation and asked international federations to cancel the events in Russia and Belarus. The fate of UEFA’s juicy sponsorship deal with gas giant Gazprom remains up in the air.
