Russian federation to surrender seat on UEFA executive committee as war in Ukraine rages on

File image of UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin, proper, shaking palms with Russian member of executive committee Alexander Dyukov through the forty eighth UEFA congress
| Photo Credit: AP

Russia will now not have a seat on the influential UEFA executive committee after the European soccer physique’s elections in six weeks.

Also, Norwegian official Lise Klaveness is the one candidate for a brand new quota place for ladies, UEFA stated on Monday (February 24, 2025), and soccer nice Andrii Shevchenko stands for the primary time successfully to change his ousted predecessor as Ukraine soccer federation president, Andriy Pavelko.

Alexander Dyukov, the chief executive of Russian oil agency Gazprom Neft, was not on the listing of candidates revealed by UEFA for its election assembly on April 3 in the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Dyukov was first elected to UEFA’s ruling committee in 2021 and stated in an interview two years in the past he would search one other four-year mandate. His absence from the UEFA candidate listing was surprising three weeks after he was re-elected president of the Russian soccer federation he has led since 2019.

UEFA stated Dyukov didn’t apply to retain his executive committee seat and had not been dominated ineligible. All candidates for elections in Europe to the ruling committees of UEFA and FIFA should go necessary checks by governance consultants.

Ban on Russian groups

Dyukov continued to attend UEFA conferences and video games round Europe whereas on a British authorities sanctions listing and through a ban on Russian groups from worldwide competitions after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

FIFA and UEFA efficiently argued on the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the early weeks of the war that together with these groups would invite chaos in their competitions when some nations in Europe refused to play opponents from Russia.

UEFA additionally dropped Russian state power agency Gazprom as a Champions League sponsor due to the war and moved the 2022 Champions League remaining from being hosted on the stadium of Gazprom-owned Zenit St. Petersburg.

Dyukov was the newest Russian soccer official, most related to Zenit, to win UEFA and FIFA elections. Others included 2018 World Cup organiser Alexey Sorokin, former sports activities minister Vitaly Mutko and Sergey Fursenko.

UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin have constantly stated Russian groups can’t be introduced again into top-level competitions whereas the war in Ukraine continues, and a cut up developed in the executive committee in 2023 when it briefly thought-about reintegrating under-17 groups.

Klaveness is about to be part of the UEFA executive committee in April two years after shedding in elections when she competed straight in opposition to male candidates together with now-disgraced Spanish official Luis Rubiales.

UEFA determined final yr to increase its 20-member executive committee and add a second quota seat for ladies. UEFA stated Klaveness was the one candidate on April 3 to be part of Laura McAllister of Wales, who was a UEFA vice chairman.

UEFA’s 55 member federations will elect 9 extra males to the executive committee in Belgrade.

New candidates embrace Shevchenko, the AC Milan nice and now Ukraine federation president, and Pedro Proença of Portugal, who was referee of the 2012 finals in the lads’s European Championship and Champions League.

Shevchenko is amongst 5 candidates competing for 2 seats which have two-year phrases on the UEFA executive committee. Those seats successfully change Rubiales and Pavelko who each have been elected in 2023.

Proença is amongst 11 males competing for seven seats with a full four-year mandate, together with Cezary Kulesza of Poland who may change his compatriot Zbigniew Boniek.

Each extraordinary member on the UEFA ruling committee was paid €160,000 ($168,000) yearly, in accordance to the newest monetary report. Vice presidents have been every paid 250,000 euros in 2023. That yr, UEFA president Ceferin was paid a wage of just about 2.9 million Swiss francs ($3.2 million).

Also on April 3, UEFA member federations will affirm 5 candidates for 5 seats on the FIFA council for the subsequent 4 years. They embrace Belgian soccer chief Pascal van Damme in the seat reserved for ladies. FIFA pays $250,000 annually for these positions.