Olympic speed skating champion Svetlana Zhurova expressed confidence that Russia would not be excluded from the European Football Union (UEFA) for allowing Crimean teams to participate in its competitions. The State Duma deputy spoke about "settling the conflict in Ukraine.

Zhurova said this in a commentary for Gazeta.Ru. The winner of the 2006 Turin Games added that excluding Russia from UEFA would look illogical, since "tomorrow we will make peace with Ukraine," while UEFA will drag out new sanctions against the aggressor country to the very last.

"They don't know what will happen tomorrow. Tomorrow we will make up with Ukraine, and we were excluded - it's wrong. Soccer is about sports, not politics. Tomorrow the politics will change, everyone is fine, everyone is friends with everyone - let's play again! That's not how it's done. It's a procedure. If we are expelled, it will take many years to get us back. UEFA will obviously fight to the last moment. If the conflict in Ukraine is resolved now, everyone will stay where they are," said Zhurova.

On the eve of the State Duma deputy Dmitry Svishev complained about Ukraine to UEFA and FIFA, noting that our country has no right to demand that Russia be punished for recognizing Crimean teams as part of its championship.

Earlier it became known that FC Sevastopol will be able to start in the new draw of the second division of the Russian Football Championship. Recall that UEFA does not recognize Crimea as Russian territory. TSK (Simferopol), SKChF (Sevastopol) and Zhemchuzhina (Yalta) played in the second league of Russian soccer in 2014. However, UEFA demanded that the RFU exclude them from its membership.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, the RFU accused UEFA that the European organization "too quickly" decided to exclude teams from Russia from its tournaments after the start of the war in Ukraine.

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