State Duma deputy Dmitry Svishchev has demanded that the European Football Union (UEFA) and the International Football Federation (FIFA) "issue a warning to Ukrainians" for demanding that Russia be expelled from their membership for allowing Crimean teams to participate in the Russian championship. The official expressed confidence that both organisations are allegedly obliged to take the position of the aggressor country.

Svishchev said this in a comment to the propaganda news agency TASS. He added that FIFA and UEFA want to return Russian teams to international competitions, and Ukraine has no right to oppose the Russian Football Union (RFU).

"Crimean clubs should have been integrated into Russian football long ago. This is finally happening. As for the complaints and calls for suspension, firstly, UEFA and FIFA, as we have seen, believe in the return of Russian football to the world stage. And secondly, this is definitely not an issue that is within the competence of Ukrainian football bodies. I would even recommend that UEFA and FIFA issue a warning to Ukrainians for such calls," Svishchev said.

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. As a reminder, UEFA does not recognise Crimea as a territory of Russia. TSK (Simferopol), SCF (Sevastopol) and Zhemchuzhina (Yalta) played in the second league of Russian football in 2014. However, UEFA demanded that the RFU exclude them from its membership.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the Russian Federation accused UEFA of having decided "too quickly" to exclude teams from Russia from its tournaments after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

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