Berlin, Feb 24, (dpa/GNA) – The Ukrainian Premier League was suspended indefinitely on Thursday, after Russia’s invasion of the country, which also led UEFA to call an emergency meeting in which a change of venue for the Champions League final in May, could be on the agenda.
A brief statement on the Ukrainian league’s website said the decision was taken after Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, imposed martial law. It was originally set to resume on the weekend from a long winter break.
Russia’s invasion could have implications on its staging of sports events including upcoming ski races, the Champions League final in May, Formula One in September and other events.
UEFA said its president, Aleksander Ceferin, has called the executive committee meeting “following the evolution of the situation between Russia and Ukraine in the last 24 hours … in order to evaluate the situation and take all necessary decisions.
Further communication will be made after the meeting of the UEFA Executive Committee,” UEFA said.
UEFA has been under pressure to strip the Russian city of St Petersburg of the Champions League final it is to host on May 28 since the Ukraine-Russia crisis escalated early in the week.
UEFA will also have to decide whether Russia will play one or possibly two World Cup play-offs at home in March as planned. Ukraine also has at least one game, but away from home.
The ruling Ski body FIS is meanwhile looking into a possible cancellation of its cross country World Cup finals March 18-20 at the Russian venue of Tyumen and women’s ski-jumping events in Russia the same month.
Sources told dpa that the issue would be discussed around weekend races in Lahti, Finland.
The FIS said that this weekend’s freestyle World Cup events at the Russian venues of Yaroslavl and Sunny Valley would go ahead as planned but weekend natural track luge events in Moscow were listed as cancelled by the governing body FIS.
Condemning Russia’s military action, the German Olympic Sports Confederation and German Disability Sports Federation said their member organizations should “suspend participating in competition and training in Russia and in the war zones.”
Also around the corner are the March 4-13 Paralympics in Beijing and its governing body IPC said it was in talks with representatives from Russia and Ukraine.
It referred to the Olympic Truce from seven days before the start of the recent Beijing Winter Olympics until seven days after the end of the Paralympics.
“As a politically neutral organization, the IPC’s focus remains on the upcoming Games rather than the ongoing situation,” a statement said.
The Formula One Russian Grand Prix is meanwhile scheduled for September 25 in Sochi, and an F1 spokesperson said they are “closely watching the very fluid developments like many others and at this time has no further comment on the race scheduled for September.”
United States sanctions imposed on Russia and individuals led to the resignation of Matthias Warnig from the supervisory board of German football club Schalke.
Warnig is chairman of the board of the North Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. North Stream is a subsidiary of Russian energy sector giants Gazprom. It was put on hold by German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday.
Gazprom are Schalke’s main sponsor and a major UEFA sponosor. It is not clear whether the conflict will also affect these areas.
GNA