Russian and Ukrainian leagues to be suspended after consulting UEFA, according to press

The Russian and Ukrainian soccer leagues will almost certainly be suspended this Tuesday after planned consultations with UEFA by videoconference, as reported this Monday by the Sport-Express newspaper.

Both championships were together with the Turkish and the Hungarian the only ones from the European continent that played their matches at the weekend, although in the case of the Ukrainian all the matches were played behind closed doors.

Some matches in Russia were held in front of tens of thousands of spectators, with the exception of Moscow, where a limitation of a maximum of 5,000 people for any public event has been in force since last week.

In Saint Petersburg, whose stadium has a capacity of almost 70,000 spectators, a similar restriction of a maximum of 1,000 people went into effect today, Monday.

The press rules out that both championships are contrary to UEFA, even more so when the minimum attendance of spectators in Moscow, Kiev or Saint Petersburg does not make the opening of the stadiums profitable.

Although in Russia there have not been many cases compared to countries such as Spain or Italy, the Kremlin has adopted draconian measures such as the closure of borders with China and Belarus, the cancellation of summits and forums, the suspension of flights, mandatory quarantines or the voluntary attendance at schools.

Sport-Express assumes that the Eurocup will be postponed until 2021, so in May and June there will be plenty of dates to finish the league championship in both countries.

In the case of Ukraine, although it has only recorded one death so far, all matches have already been held behind closed doors.

In addition, the federation is considering giving champion to Shakhtar Donetsk, who has a 13 point advantage over the second and third classified, Zariá and Dinamo Kiev, respectively.

No one has mentioned that possibility in Russia, although Zenit's advantage over the second, Krasnodar, is also notable, nine points, with eight days to go.

Saint Petersburg would be one of the cities affected by the cancellation of the European Championship, as it had to host the first phase matches and one of the quarterfinals.