Russia Meets UEFA Searching it Is Way Back to Football

Russia tried making progress on its difficult and slow return to international sports while the war between Ukraine and Russia is still ongoing, with the official UEFA European football body. Aleksandr Alaev, the vice president of the Russian Football Union declined to comment when leaving after 3 hours of face-to-face talks. They have been the first since Russia drew back from last month’s threat to leave UEFA and wants to join the Asian Football Confederation.

The teams from Russia have been banned from FIFA and UEFA competitions during the war in Ukraine and currently, there is no way back from the decisions that had been upheld by the highest court of sports. Albania, Switzerland, and Poland, the national teams had refused within a few days of Ukraine’s invasion by Russia to play their scheduled games against Russia. Continue reading →

EURO 2024: UEFA CONFIRMS RUSSIA BAN FOR TOURNAMENT; BELARUS ENTER DRAW

UEFA confirmed on Tuesday that Russia have been banned from the 2024 European Championship. Russian teams were banned in February from international competitions by both UEFA and world footballing body FIFA days after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. A Russian appeal against those decisions was dismissed at the Court of Arbitration for Sport. UEFA also decided to let Belarus go into the 2024 Euro draw next month despite a government request from tournament host Germany to remove the team because Belarus is a military ally of Russia.

Belarus will be in the 53-nation draw that Russia are banned from, although the Belarusians cannot be placed in the same group as neighboring Ukraine for security reasons. The qualifying groups will be drawn on Oct. 9 in Frankfurt, and German interior minister Nancy Faeser last week urged UEFA not to let Belarus play. UEFA said it had replied to Faeser in a confidential letter. Continue reading →

CHELSEA MAKE BIZARRE DEMAND BEFORE COMPLETING SURPRISE MIDFIELD SIGNING

Chelsea are ‘close’ to wrapping up a £12.5m move to sign Dynamo Moscow midfielder Arsen Zakharyan, though he must first agree to a very strange demand indeed, per reports. The Blues have conducted their arrivals on two fronts this summer. Part-owner, Todd Boehly, has pursued high profile targets who can make an immediate impact at Stamford Bridge. Raheem Sterling, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella all clearly fall into that category, though there’s a second set of additions.

Indeed, Chelsea are also investing in their future and have spent big on the stars of tomorrow. The trio of goalkeeper Gabriel Slonina, along with midfielders Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei have cost a combined £41m. The oldest of the three is Casadei at just 19. Chukwuemeka’s deal in particular came out of the blue. Almost as soon as Chelsea’s interest emerged, the ex-Villa sensation’s arrival was announced. Now, according to Gianluca Di Marzio, another promising young midfielder is on the verge of joining. Continue reading →

LORIENT SIGN REPLACEMENT FOR CELTIC TARGET JENZ

French Ligue 1 outfit Lorient have signed a replacement for central defender Moritz Jenz who has been strongly linked with a move to Scottish Premiership side Celtic this summer. 24-year-old MontassarTaibi has signed for Lorient from Russia Premier League side Rubin Kazan.

Taibi has played 20 times for Tunisia having started his professional career at ES Tunis in his native Tunisia. He moved to CaykurRizespor in the Turkish top flight where he spent three years before leaving the club last year. The defender signed for Russia team Rubin Kazan last summer, but he has made the decision to leave the club after one season mainly due to the ongoing feud between Ukraine and Russia. The feud has affected football activities in the two countries, while clubs from Russia and the Russian national team are banned from competitions in Europe and on the world stage. Continue reading →

RUSSIA RELEGATED TO NATIONS LEAGUE C

Russia will spend the next edition of the UEFA Nations League in section C after the were relegated from section B. The Russians have been relegated from section B to section C without kicking a ball as punishment for the forceful invasion of neighbours Ukraine by president Vladimir Putin and his men.

The Russians were initially drawn in the second group, section B of the current UEFA Nations League campaign. Apart from Russia, Israel, Iceland and Albania are also in the group known as B2. Continue reading →

SPARTAK MOSCOWSECURE CUP FINAL SPOT

Spartak Moscow have booked their place in the Russian Cup final after beating Yenisey 3-0 in their semifinal clash on Wednesday. Spartak Moscow came into the Russian Cup last four clash with Yenisey on the back of two wins in the Russia Premier League and they were able to make it three wins in a row in all competitions after the emphatic win over Yenisey.

Capital club Spartak Moscow began their current run of three straight wins in all competitions on the back of the 3-2 defeat at the hands of hosts FC Rostov. The loss at FC Rostov in the Russia Premier League was followed by the 2-1 home win over KrylyaSovetov in the same competition as well. Spartak Moscow made it two Russia Premier League wins on the bounce with the 3-1 victory at Ural. The away win over Ural preceded the FA Cup semifinal victory over Yenisey. Continue reading →

HOW POLAND QUALIFIED FOR QATAR 2022

Poland went through a barren spell recently as they failed to qualify for two successive FIFA World Cup tournaments on the back of their appearance at the 2006 edition on German soil. They didn’t qualify for both the 2010 FIFA World Cup tournament in South Africa and the 2014 FIFA World Cup tournament in Brazil.

The Polish team were able to end their 12-year wait for an appearance at the World Cup during the last edition in Russia. Poland showed a lot of promise during the qualifiers ahead of the tournament in Russia four years only for them to perform poorly when hostilities began on Russian soil. They were the favourites in their group ahead of Senegal, Colombia and Japan, but they struggled badly to live up to that status and were bottom of the group at the end of proceedings. Continue reading →

SWEDEN, POLAND BATTLE FOR W/CUP SPOT

It would be a straight battle between Sweden and Poland when the two teams meetin the playoff final clash scheduled to take place at the Stadion Slaski in Chorzow, Poland on Tuesday night with a place in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament at stake. This means that only one of Sweden and Poland will be at the World Cup tournament scheduled to take place later this year in Qatar.

Poland are the hosts, but Sweden can solace from the fact that they have a very good record against them. Sweden have won their last six meetings between the two countries since they lost the first meeting at the 1974 FIFA World Cup tournament in West Germany. The Swedes have a record of six wins and one defeat in seven meetings against Poland with 14 goals scored and four goals conceded. Two of the four goals conceded against Poland came at the Euro 2020 tournament last summer thanks to the brace from Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski. Despite the two goals from their star man, Poland were still beaten 3-2 by Sweden. Continue reading →

ALBERTO IN £17M ZENIT DEAL

Brazilian striker Yuri Alberto has signed for Zenit Saint Petersburg FC of Russia. The signing was confirmed by the Russian champions earlier this week.

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The Premier League duo of Arsenal and Everton were interested in the attacking talent before he swapped Brazil for Russia this month. Brazilian media outlet GloboEsporte reported that the deal is worth £17m.
Continue reading →

ITALY, PORTUGAL NEED WORLD CUP PLAYOFFS

Four months is a long period in the world football as the Italy senior national team players and their fans found out recently on the back of their failure to seal a place at the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup tournament automatically via the European section.

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Back in July, Italy returned to the top of European football when they saw off England on penalties to lift the delayed Euro 2020 tournament amidst an impressive unbeaten run. The Italians were able to set a new unbeaten record of 37 matches at the end of their World Cup qualifying gamesin September as they continued their phenomenal run as the top team in Europe.
Continue reading →

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