The UEFA Champions League, soccer’s governing body, announced Monday the Russian women’s soccer team will be banned from the Women's European Championship in July and from participating in qualifying for next year's World Cup over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Russian team will be replaced by the Portuguese team for the tournament that will be played from July 6-31 in England.
Russian soccer faced a slew of bans following the invasion.
“Further to its 28 February 2022 decision to suspend all Russian representative teams and clubs from participating in UEFA competition matches until further notice, the UEFA Executive Committee today took a series of decisions relating to the implications of that decision for its upcoming competitions, in order to ensure their smooth staging in a safe and secure environment for all those concerned,” UEFA said in a press release.
UEFA also denied Russia’s bid to host the men’s European championships in 2028 and 2032.
Russian club teams will also be barred from participating in the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference League next year.
The Russian national men’s team was already banned from the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.
Some information in this report comes from Reuters.
