MOSCOW, Apr 12The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) published on its website the motivational part of the decision to refuse to satisfy the appeal of the Russian Football Union (RFU) on the adoption of interim measures in the form of postponing the play-offs of the 2022 World Cup qualifying tournament with the participation of the Russian national team to a later date. Previously FIFA and UEFA published a joint statement, according to which Russian teams and clubs were suspended from participation in all international competitions for an indefinite period, in connection with which on March 24 the semifinal meeting of the Russian team with the Polish team did not take place as part of the butt mini-tournament for the right to reach the final part 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The RFU filed appeals with the CAS against the decisions of FIFA and UEFA. The court denied the RFU's request for an expedited review of the case, and later — the request for the suspension of interim measures in the framework of the UEFA and FIFA case. The Football Union, the Swedish Football Association and the Czech Football Association have publicly stated that they will not play against the Russian team because of the situation in Ukraine. “In other words, if the Russian team were allowed to participate in the play-offs, their opponents would have received technical defeats, since the matches would not have taken place. Then the integrity of the FIFA competitions would be seriously undermined,” the reasoning part of the court says. that, according to the RFU, preventing players from competing causes «irreparable harm», affects the world ranking and the loss of sponsorship, so the organization sought to hold play-offs on a neutral field due to FIFA's ban on holding games in Russia. FIFA and UEFA said there were «no guarantees» that any country would agree to host a match involving the Russian national team for security reasons. The Court agreed with these allegations. «A large number of European countries supported the decision to suspend teams representing Russia, so it is unlikely that these countries will host games with the national team of this country. In light of the worldwide outrage and condemnation caused by the events that are now unfolding on Ukraine, it is doubtful that enhanced security measures will be sufficient to guarantee the safety of the players, coaching staff and other team personnel,» the statement added.
