"If they came..." UEFA President speaks about Russia's return

The President of the European Football Union (UEFA), Alexander Čeferin, has called for the admission of youth teams from Russia to international competitions. The Slovenian functionary explained that due to the suspension in the aggressor country, younger generations are now being brought up to propagate hatred for the rest of the world.

Čeferin said this in an interview with the German news agency DPA, published on the website of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The head of European football complained that he called the situation in Europe terrible, and added that Russians "who cannot yet vote in their country" could be returned to UEFA tournaments.

"Why should this affect children who cannot yet vote in their country? But now they can't be brought back because some associations are strongly influenced by their governments. I say again: children in Russia are brought up under the propaganda that we do not love them, we hate them and do not accept them. If they came here and met their 15-16-year-old peers from Germany, Slovenia, or elsewhere, they could see that everything is different. But now a whole generation in Russia is being brought up with even more hatred. The whole situation in Europe is frightening," said Čeferin.

It is worth noting that UEFA continues to assign ratings to Russian teams, despite their suspension from tournaments due to Russia's war against Ukraine.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, the Russian Football Union (RFU) has once again started talking about the possibility of changing the confederation from European to Asian.

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