Uefa set to move Champions League final away from St Petersburg

Uefa will move this season's Champions League final from St Petersburg, with an extraordinary meeting called for Friday morning to confirm Russia is being stripped of the showpiece match.

The executive committee will meet to discuss the consequences for football of the military invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with the aim of the meeting "to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions".

Uefa has come under increasing pressure to act after the escalation of tensions this week and said in a statement on Thursday that it strongly condemned Russia’s invasion, was “resolute in our solidarity with the football community in Ukraine” and “ready to extend our hand to the Ukrainian people”. The governing body added: “We are dealing with this situation with the utmost seriousness and urgency.”

The British government has called for the match, scheduled for Saturday May 28th, to be moved and on Thursday members of the European parliament wrote to Uefa calling for an extraordinary meeting, to discuss not only moving the final but terminating sponsorship arrangements with the Russian gas company Gazprom.

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Schalke are one of two clubs, alongside Zenit St Petersburg, sponsored by Gazprom and on Thursday they announced they would no longer be carrying the company’s branding on their shirts. “Following recent developments, FC Schalke 04 have decided to remove the logo of main sponsor Gazprom from the club’s shirts,” the German club said. “It will be replaced by lettering reading ‘Schalke 04’ instead.”

Two Russian teams remain active in this season’s Europa League, with Zenit’s game at Real Betis confirmed to go ahead on Thursday night. The Spanish side lead the tie 3-2 from the first leg. Spartak Moscow have qualified for the last 16 and the draw for that stage of the tournament is due to take place at midday CET on Friday, after the Uefa executive committee meeting.

Poland are due to play in Moscow on March 24th and wrote to Fifa on Tuesday calling for the governing body to “urgently clarify the issues” regarding the game amid concerns for player safety. The Polish FA confirmed that it had yet to receive a response.

Also on Thursday the chairman of the Swedish Football Association said a 2022 World Cup play-off match in Russia was “almost unthinkable” at the moment. Sweden are due to face the Czech Republic in a World Cup play-off on March 24th, with the victor meeting the winner of the game between Russia and Poland. Wins for Sweden and Russia would mean the sides meeting in Russia on March 29th, with a place at the Qatar World Cup at stake.

“The feelings we have as we wake up this morning are that it is almost unthinkable that we in a few weeks would play a football match in Russia,” Karl-Erik Nilsson told Reuters. “As it looks here and now, today, there is absolutely no desire to play a football match in Russia.”

Nilsson said he had not been in touch with his contacts in Ukraine after the overnight attacks. “Out thoughts go to our friends in Ukraine over the situation they woke up to today - it’s awful,” he said. “Football should be seen as something of less importance in the middle of this inferno.”

The 64-year-old former referee stopped short of demanding that Russia be kicked out of the World Cup. “I believe that (in these situations) much is called for very quickly - we will need to live and socialise even in the future, and I think we shouldn’t be too quick with solutions,” he said.

“Instead, we should take our time and see what actions are needed. For the moment we are looking forward to arms being laid down and that peace and freedom come into existence.”

Nilsson said the desires of the Ukrainians should guide football’s response. “It’s important that the requests come from Ukraine,” Nilsson said. “At the moment they have a lot more to think about than football, but a future will arrive one day and we mush show solidarity with our football friends around Europe.”

The Ukrainian Premier League suspended operations on Thursday after president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to impose martial law. The league has been on a two-month winter break and was due to resume on Friday. It did not give any planned restart date. - Guardian