FIFA Reviews Possible Return of Russian Teams to Global Competitions

FIFA will formally consider readmitting Russian teams to international tournaments, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) urged sports federations to reconsider sanctions imposed over Russia's war against Ukraine.

Sky News reported the move on July 8, in coverage relayed by the Ukrainian outlet UNN.

The step could end Russia's exclusion from world football, in place since 2022, and open a route back to the Olympics at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

FIFA confirmed it had received information about the IOC's decision to provisionally lift the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee. The world governing body would review the ruling before deciding on any next steps, in coordination with relevant stakeholders.

With the IOC's recommendations revised, international federations will now decide independently whether to readmit Russian teams, Sky News noted.

Russian national teams and clubs have been barred from FIFA and UEFA competitions since 2022, when they were suspended after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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FIFA President Gianni Infantino had signaled in February that the exclusion should be revisited, arguing the ban "achieved nothing and only created more frustration and hatred."

The organization has since cleared Russia's under-15 team to play at the youth World Championship in Azerbaijan this October, the report added.

Infantino has faced scrutiny over his past ties to Russia, including his close cooperation with Moscow around the 2018 World Cup and the Russian Order of Friendship he received from Vladimir Putin in 2019.

Critics have pointed to that relationship as part of a broader concern over FIFA’s posture toward Russia since the start of full-scale war in Ukraine.

UEFA has moved more cautiously. In 2023, it dropped plans to reinstate Russian youth teams after European football associations objected, and it remains unsettled whether FIFA will now follow the IOC's lead.

Its executive board scrapped the recommended restrictions on Russian athletes and handed entry decisions to individual federations, ending the neutral-status vetting that had shaped their participation.

The same ruling provisionally reinstated the Russian Olympic Committee, while barring it from absorbing sports bodies in Ukrainian territory that fall under the jurisdiction of Ukraine's National Olympic Committee.

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