The Premier League and its clubs on Tuesday unanimously agreed to suspend their agreement with Russian broadcast partner Rambler (Okko Sport) with immediate effect and to donate one million pounds to support the people of Ukraine.
“The League strongly condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We call for peace and our thoughts are with all those impacted. The 1 million pounds donation will be made to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to deliver humanitarian aid directly to those in need,” Premier League stated in an official statement. This action follows a weekend of matches displaying League-wide support for Ukraine.
All club captains wore special armbands and fans joined players, managers, match officials and club staff in a moment of reflection and solidarity before kick-off at each match.
“Big screens displayed “Football Stands Together” against the backdrop of the blue and yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag. These words were also shown on LED perimeter boards during matches. This message of solidarity was visible to fans around the world across Premier League digital channels and via match broadcasts. This is in addition to the numerous ways in which clubs continue to display their support,” it stated further.
Following rising tension between Russia and Ukraine, the sports fraternity has become proactive and many events in Russia have been cancelled, including the Russian Grand Prix.
The Champions League final has also been moved out of Russia and it will now take place in Paris.
UEFA and FIFA have also barred Russia from international football until further notice. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month had announced a military operation in Ukraine and warned other countries that any attempt to interfere with the Russian action would lead to “consequences they have never seen.”
Scotland’s FIFA World Cup play-off semi-final against Ukraine, scheduled for March 24, has been postponed.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, had a call with the chief executives of the Scotland, Ukraine, Wales and Austria Football Associations on Monday where they were verbally told that the game will be moved to June. Earlier, Ukriane had asked FIFA to postpone their March 24 World Cup play-off match against Scotland.
The play-off semi-final was due to be played at Hampden Park on March 24, with the winner going on to face Austria or Wales in Cardiff for a place in this year’s World Cup in Qatar. But now the clash has been postponed owing to the ongoing military operation of Ukraine by Russia.
Russia was thrown out of the tournament by FIFA as a sanction for their military operation. They had been due to face Poland in their semi-final.
World football’s governing body had earlier released a joint statement with UEFA on Monday announcing Russia’s national teams and its clubs were banned from all competitions.
Earlier, the Russian football federation on Thursday said that it will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the decisions by FIFA and UEFA to bar Russian national teams from international competitions over the country’s military operation of Ukraine.
The Russian football federation said in a statement it would file one lawsuit against the two governing bodies to demand that Russian men’s and women’s national teams be allowed to compete, including in qualifying for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.