2021 - 2022 Football Thread - Page 94

On March 07 2022 03:42 plasmidghost wrote:
Concerning that Watford put two past us but three points are three points. CL football is close!

A week after declaring that Russian teams cannot play international soccer for an indefinite period because of the country’s invasion of Ukraine, soccer’s governing body announced on Monday that foreign players and coaches contracted by Russian teams can suspend their contracts and move elsewhere — at least temporarily.

The decision will affect about 100 top players currently signed to Russian clubs, who will be able to set aside their contracts starting Thursday and sign with new teams through the end of the European season. On June 30, however, their original contracts would come back into force, and those with years left would have to return to their Russian teams or negotiate their departures.

The measure stops short of what groups representing players and worldwide leagues had requested. In a joint letter, reviewed by The New York Times, FIFPro, the largest players’ union, and the World Leagues Forum, an umbrella organization for more than 40 competitions, had asked FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, that athletes be allowed to leave Russia permanently.

The request has created an awkward situation for FIFA. The organization had broken precedent when it moved to punish Russia for its actions in Ukraine — including barring Russia’s national team from qualifying matches for this year’s World Cup — but allowing players and coaches to break their contracts, and move to new clubs outside soccer’s traditional winter and summer windows, was potentially far more problematic.

Talks over the weekend between the player groups and FIFA, which also included lawyers for European soccer’s governing body, UEFA, and club representatives, failed to reach a consensus, with officials said to be concerned about setting a precedent.

A related arrangement will be in place for all players at Ukrainian clubs after that country’s league season was suspended last month when martial law was declared. FIFA said Monday that “all employment contracts of foreign players and coaches with clubs affiliated to the Ukrainian Association of Football (UAF) will be deemed automatically suspended until the end of the season in Ukraine,” which is June 30.

While many foreign players in Ukraine, left with no options, have already fled the fighting — a group of South Americans and their families made a harrowing escape via train just over a week ago — FIFPro and the leagues group suggested in their letter that some players were no longer comfortable playing for Russian teams at all.

“These foreign players may rightfully consider that they are not willing to represent any longer a Russian team and should be able to immediately terminate their contract with their employer without facing any sanction whatsoever,” the letter said.

On Monday, FIFPro called FIFA’s temporary solution “too timid.”

“It will be hard for players to find employment for the remainder of the season with uncertainty looming over them and, within a few weeks, they will be in a very difficult situation once again,” it said. “It is unsatisfactory even for players who are tied to short-term contracts in Russia — where contracts typically end in December — and who may not want or be able to return after 30 June 2022.”

Under local rules, Russian clubs can have as many as eight foreign players, known as legionnaires, on their rosters. The current Russian champion, Zenit St. Petersburg, has five Brazilians, a Colombian, a Croat and a player from Kazakhstan on its squad.

At least one club, Krasnodar, announced last week that it would allow its foreign players and coaching staff to suspend their contracts. Its German coach, Daniel Farke, the former manager of the English Premier League club Norwich, quit less than two months into his contract without overseeing a single game. But foreign players continued to suit up for Russian teams in the most recent round of league games over the weekend.

Russia’s declaration of war has exposed gaps in the statutes under which sporting organizations like FIFA are organized. After the invasion began and drew worldwide condemnation, FIFA lawyers and officials scrambled to find a way to take action that could be justified under its regulations. At first, soccer officials proposed measures that stopped short of an outright ban: Russia was to be prohibited from playing on home soil and barred from using its flag and even its name. But that punishment unraveled within 24 hours when Russia’s opponents — and about a dozen other countries — announced that they would refuse to share a field with Russia wherever, and whenever, games were to be played.

A day later, FIFA threw Russia’s teams and its clubs out of world soccer. But its lawyers are already bracing for a fight over the decision. Russia’s soccer federation has called for an expedited hearing at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in order for a decision to be made before March 24, the date when it was supposed to host Poland in a World Cup qualification playoff.

Russia has argued that FIFA does not have legal standing to eject it from the competition.

FIFA officials are privately anxious about the case, knowing that Russia may be able to test the legitimacy of the decision. FIFA’s argument is expected to rely on the organization’s supremacy as the World Cup organizer to have a smooth-running tournament and ensure the safety and security of its participants.

Russia already has approached potential arbitrators for the case. (Both sides are able to appoint one, with the president of the arbitration panel appointed by the court.) The hearing, regardless of the outcome, is likely to lead to renewed scrutiny of the court, a largely opaque body that holds most of its hearings behind closed doors.