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.

When FIFA and UEFA had been imposed on 28th February were challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, many judges agreed that the outcome of letting teams from Russia play can be chaotic and irreparable for the seamless running of leagues.

UEFA had a sponsorship deal with Gazprom, the Russian State Energy firm. But this deal had been terminated. UEFA also moved the Champions League final in 2022 from Zenit St. Petersburg’s home stadium and banned the club from the group stage Champions League from the season.

Even though football had been blocked, sports officials and Olympic across the world had conference calls the previous week for exploring ways to help teams and athletes compete in qualifying events for Paris Olympics 2024.

The International Olympic Committee had an executive board meeting for discussing the position in Russia 18 months before the Paris opening ceremony. In February 2022 IOC advised sports bodies to exclude not just from hosting but also from competing.