World soccer body FIFA and European authority UEFA banned Russian national and clubs teams from their competitions “until further notice.”
Russia’s men’s national team had been scheduled to play in World Cup qualifying playoffs in just three weeks’ time.
UEFA also took the last remaining Russians in European club competitions this season, Spartak Moscow, out of the second-tier Europa League. Spartak’s scheduled opponent on March 10 and 17, Leipzig of Germany, advances directly to the quarterfinals, UEFA said. The IOC also went directly after President Vladimir Putin, who turned the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics into a personal project. Putin’s golden Olympic Order, which was awarded in 2001, has been withdrawn, the IOC said in a statement.
Where exclusion was “not possible on short notice for organizational or legal reasons,” then teams from Russia and Belarus should compete as neutral athletes with no national flag, anthem or symbols, including at the upcoming Winter Paralympics in Beijing.
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