Russia considers competing in Asia after UEFA sanctions

The Russian Football Federation is considering switching to Asian Confederation (AFC) after being sanctioned by UEFA following the invasion of Ukraine and that would prevent him from competing in the next Eurocopas both male and female.

“I think the time has come to seriously think about a possible change to the Asian Football Confederation”declared the Russian parliamentarian Dmitry Pirog on Russian state television Match TV.

Piewho was a professional boxer, said this because It is unclear how long the sanctions that UEFA is imposing on both Russian teams and the national team will last.which could last several years. the television network Sky He also reported that the federation could be considering this movement.

The UEFA increased the penalties Russia this week, preventing the country from contesting the Eurocopas of 2028 and 2032 and the League of Nationsin addition to disqualifying the women’s team from the European Championship that will be played between July 6 and 31 in England, where it will be replaced by Portugal.

Piedeputy chairman of the sports committee of the Russian parliament, stated that Asia has quite a few renowned European coaches and that it is in a period of strong growth.

However, the former president of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Koloskov he was “definitely against” a change that would bring “the death of Russian football”, which “could never return to the European family”.

The case of countries changing confederation either for sporting or security reasons is strange, but not new. Israel moved from Asia to UEFA in the early 1990sy Australia traded Oceania for the AFC in 2006.