UEFA to move Champions League final out of Russia after Ukraine crisis

UEFA will no longer stage this season’s Champions League final in St. Petersburg after Russia attacked Ukraine.An extraordinary meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee is slated for Friday to take stock of the situation, with officials set to confirm that the Champions League final (28 May) will be moved out of Russia, Associated Press reported. If the final is indeed played over there, Saint Petersburg would become only the second Russian city to host a Champions League final after Moscow in 2008.“Following the evolution of the situation between Russia and Ukraine in the last 24 hours, the UEFA president has decided to call an extraordinary meeting of the executive committee .... in order to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions,” UEFA said in a statement.

The UEFA meeting is expected to be on Friday morning. The British government and fan groups had been asking UEFA to no longer play the game in the St. Petersburg, where the stadium is sponsored by Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom. “On this tragic day, our thoughts are with everyone in Ukraine, our friends, colleagues, members, & their loved ones,” the Fans Supporters Europe group tweeted Thursday. “Given the events unfolding, we expect an imminent announcement from UEFA on the relocation of the Champions League final. ”The Ukrainian Premier League suspended operations on Thursday due to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to impose martial law. The league has been on a two-month winter break and was due to resume on Friday. It did not give any planned date to restart. Elsewhere, the International Paralympic Committee are also reportedly in talks with officials in Ukraine and Russia as their teams prepare to head to China for the Paralympic Winter Games which begin next week. “The IPC is in dialogue with both the Ukrainian and Russian Paralympic Committees ahead of the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games,” the IPC said in an emailed statement. “As a politically neutral organization, the IPC’s focus remains on the upcoming Games rather than the ongoing situation.” Russia’s name, flag and anthem were already barred from the 4-13 March Paralympics in Beijing over previous doping cases.