The Russian Football Union continues to humiliate itself before UEFA
Russia continues to negotiate on the resumption of participation of football teams from the Russian Federation under the auspices of UEFA.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, said the General Secretary of the Russian Football Union Maxim Mitrofanov, answering the question why the organization refused to move to Asia.
“This is the wrong way to pose the question: it is incorrect to say that a decision on Asia has been made. In fact, the RFU executive committee did not make any decisions on Asia. I will tell you how the discussion of this topic went. At first, members of the executive committee stated: we are a member of UEFA, we are negotiating with UEFA and FIFA on the resumption of our participation in international competitions.
Yes, one of the options is to leave UEFA in order to move to another confederation. We keep it. We have conducted and continue to conduct dialogue with Asian partners. But the question at the executive committee was: are we leaving UEFA or not?” Mitrofanov said in an interview with Izvestia.
He explained why the question of leaving UEFA and changing the confederation is raised every time at the end of December.
“The reason for this is the UEFA statute. There are two ways to leave UEFA. The first is at the initiative of UEFA, when the federation grossly violates the organization’s norms. The second is a statement of resignation of one's own free will. But in this case, the exit process takes some time.
The application is considered if it is submitted no later than six months before the end of the UEFA financial year, which is June 30 of each year, that is, the application must be submitted before December 31. If you submit an application on January 1, 2024, then its consideration will take place not on June 30, 2024, but on June 30, 2025,” says the RFU Secretary General.
An application submitted on January 1, 2024, as well as an application dated December 31, 2024, will be considered at the same time - until July 30, 2025. This was the question at the executive committee in December: should the RFU unilaterally submit an application to leave UEFA so that our application will be considered in 2024?”, noted the football functionary.
According to him, both members of the board of trustees and representatives of the executive committee have decided that at the moment it is correct to continue negotiations on a return while remaining members of UEFA.
“But this is not a refusal to move to Asia - we continue contacts, hold friendly matches, and build other areas of cooperation. This is not a fallback option, not a club that we threaten. This is an objective option for the possible development of the RFU if it is not possible to restore our full status in UEFA,” Mitrofanov concluded.
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