This season’s UEFA Champions League final is set to be moved out of Saint Petersburg after Russia attacked neighbours Ukraine.
An extraordinary meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee is slated for Friday to take stock of the situation, with officials set to confirm that the Champions League final (28 May) will be moved out of Russia, Associated Press reported.
If the final is indeed played over there, Saint Petersburg would become only the second Russian city to host a Champions League final after Moscow in 2008.
"UEFA shares the international community’s significant concern for the security situation developing in Europe and strongly condemns the ongoing Russian military invasion in Ukraine.
As the governing body of European football, UEFA is working tirelessly to develop and promote football according to common European values such as peace and respect for human rights, in the spirit of the Olympic Charter. We remain resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine and stand ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people.
We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency. Decisions will be taken by the UEFA Executive Committee and announced tomorrow," UEFA said in a statement on Thursday.
The UEFA meeting is expected to be on Friday morning.
The Russian city was supposed to host the 2021 final, but the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant UEFA had to move the games the 2020 and 2021 finals in Portugal, Lisbon and Porto respectively, with original hosts Istanbul and Saint Petersburg being reallocated their hosting of the final in 2023 and 2022.
The British government and fans groups have also urged UEFA to not have the Champions League final in St Petersburg, where the stadium is sponsored by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom.
“On this tragic day, our thoughts are with everyone in Ukraine, our friends, colleagues, members, & their loved ones,” the Fans Supporters Europe group tweeted Thursday. “Given the events unfolding, we expect an imminent announcement from UEFA on the relocation of the Champions League final.”
Meanwhile, the Ukranian Premier League has also been suspended due to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to impose martial law. There is no specific date of resumption yet. The league was on a winter break and was expected to resume on Friday.
Elsewhere, the International Paralympic Committee are also reportedly in talks with officials in Ukraine and Russia as their teams prepare to head to China for the Paralympic Winter Games which begin next week.
“The IPC is in dialogue with both the Ukrainian and Russian Paralympic Committees ahead of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games,” the IPC said in an emailed statement. “As a politically neutral organization, the IPC’s focus remains on the upcoming Games rather than the ongoing situation.”
Russia’s name, flag and anthem were already barred from the 4-13 March Paralympics in Beijing over previous doping cases.
Meanwhile, the Russian men's football team too are slated to be in action soon, when they take on Poland in the 2022 World Cup Qualifiers on 24 March. FIFA are yet to comment on the matter.
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