UEFA have confirmed that Russia's women national side have been ruled out from participating in Euro 2022 as a result of the nation's government deciding to invade Ukraine.
The organisation released a short statement that read: " Russia will not participate in group C of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022 final tournament scheduled between 6 and 31 July in England and will be replaced by Portugal, the opponent Russia defeated in the play-offs."
The game's other major governing body in FIFA also confirmed that the Russian women side will not be eligible to play in the 2023 World Cup. "Russia did not play their two matches scheduled in April in Group E (comprising Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Malta and Azerbaijan) due to their suspension.
"Russia will not participate in any of the subsequent matches in this competition and all their results until now are considered as null and void. Consequently, Group E will continue as a group of five teams."
Russia's men's team are subject to the same bans imposed by both FIFA and UEFA, though initially they were going to be allowed to compete providing the met certain conditions - such as changing their name to 'Football Union of Russia' and playing their games at neutral venues.
The ban extends to club football, with Spartak Moscow the most notable club to suffer as they were disqualified from the Europa League having already reached the knockout stage of the competition.
As a result of the latest update, whoever wins the Scottish Premier League is likely to go straight into the Champions League group stage rather than face a Russian side in the qualification stages of the competition.
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The Football Union of Russia had surprisingly thrown their hat in the ring to host Euro 2028 but not only has that idea been met with severe backlash, it has prompted UEFA to confirm there will be no Russian club sides participating in any of their competitions for the 2022/23 season.
Focusing on the potential bid to host international tournaments, UEFA's update read: "The UEFA Executive Committee declared the bid submitted by the Football Union of Russia (FUR) to host the UEFA EURO 2028 or the UEFA EURO 2032 as not eligible, in accordance with Article 16.02 of the Bid Regulations UEFA Finals and Final Phases which states that “each bidder shall ensure that it does not act in a manner that could bring UEFA, the UEFA final or UEFA final phase, any other bidder, the bidding procedure or European football into disrepute.”
Moreover, “the automatic qualification of the host team(s) shall be guaranteed for a single host”. Therefore, given the uncertainty as to when the suspension will be lifted, the acceptance of a bid from the FUR would also go against the decision of the UEFA Executive Committee of 28 February 2022, suspending all Russian representative teams and clubs from participating in UEFA competition matches until further notice, if an association, whose teams are currently suspended from participating in any UEFA competition would be allowed to bid for a tournament to be hosted on its territory.
