The Court of Arbitration for Sport has rejected an appeal against the exclusion of Russian national teams and clubs from international and European play.
On February 28, days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, UEFA and FIFA prohibited Russians from competing in their tournaments.
A number of Russian teams and the Football Union of Russia (FUR) challenged the ban to CAS, but CAS stated on Friday that all of their appeals had been rejected.
Six appeals were filed in total: one each from Zenit St. Petersburg, FC Sochi, CSKA Moscow, and Dynamo Moscow against UEFA and FIFA. The FUR filed an appeal against FIFA, and the FUR filed an appeal against UEFA.
A CAS panel heard them through video conference on July 5 and July 11, and dismissed them all.
"The panel decided that the deepening of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the public and government responses globally, produced unforeseen and unprecedented conditions to which FIFA and UEFA had to respond," said a CAS statement outlining the reasons for the dismissal.
"The panel ruled that both parties operated within the scope of the authority afforded to them under their respective statutes and regulations in determining that Russian teams and clubs should not participate in competitions under their jurisdiction while such circumstances remained."
The statement went on to say that the panel decided it was unnecessary to describe the nature of the war between Russia and Ukraine and instead chose to concentrate on how it might effect the games.
"The panel finds it unfortunate that the current military operations in Ukraine, for which Russian football teams, clubs, and players themselves have no responsibility, had such a negative impact on them and Russian football generally because of the decisions of FIFA and UEFA, but the panel's view is that those effects were offset by the need for the secure and orderly conduct of football events for the rest of the world."
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