The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) announced on Tuesday that UEFA's ban on Russian teams participating in competitions has been upheld while a similar appeal against FIFA's suspension remains under deliberation.
Both the world and European soccer governing bodies decided that Russian teams would be banned from competitions until further notice after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and the Russian Soccer Union (RFU) appealed to CAS.
The Appeals Arbitration Division president has denied a request to lift the suspensions until CAS announces its final ruling in an interim move as Russian athletes and teams remain banned from multiple sports.
A loss for Russian football in the first legal round against UEFA and FIFA. No quick return to European competitions. On Russia's World Cup status, CAS targets end of week for a separate interim ruling in the FIFA case appeal. https://t.co/F69jMsZfyf
— Graham Dunbar (@gdunbarap) March 15, 2022
"The challenged decision remains in force and all Russian teams and clubs continue to be suspended from participation in UEFA competitions," read a CAS statement. "The CAS decisions on the requests to stay the execution of the FIFA decisions for the duration of the CAS proceedings are likely to be issued at the end of this week."
Since the FIFA and UEFA decisions, Spartak Moscow have been unable to play their Europa League round of 16 tie with RB Leipzig while Russia are currently unable to play their World Cup qualification fixtures at the end of this month.
The Russians had been scheduled to host Poland in a playoff but Russia's ability to qualify for the event in Qatar is in doubt with the Polish, Czech and Swedish soccer governing bodies all refusing to play against the country which blocks them in their playoff path.
