Israeli federation supported the return of Russian soccer

The Israeli Football Federation is in favor of admitting Russian soccer teams to international competitions. Maxim Mitrofanov, general secretary of the Russian Football Union (RFU), told Izvestia on December 25.

According to him, in negotiations with the International Football Federation (FIFA) and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the Russian side emphasizes double standards, when our teams were banned after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, while Israel avoided soccer sanctions after the start of the operation in Gaza, fighting on the border with Lebanon and recently introduced troops on the territory of Syria.

At the same time, the RFU is not calling for the Israelis to be suspended, but for the Russians to be brought back into the competition. According to Mitrofanov, their colleagues from Israel support Russia in returning its teams to the international stage.

"We have excellent relations with the Israel Football Federation, we are in friendly relations with its president and general secretary. And it is not a question of imposing any sanctions on them. And, by the way, their position is also that it is necessary to remove sanctions from Russian teams. Their opinion is that there are no grounds to apply such a decision to Russia," Mitrofanov told Izvestia.

The RFU general secretary noted that the current sanctions against Russia should be projected onto Israel.

"If we move away from the situation of double standards and return everyone to the mode of making objective decisions, then, since such sanctions have already been applied to Russian teams, on what grounds are they not applied to Israeli teams? But we are not fighting for Israel to be banned after us. But for us to be banned, since they don't touch Israel," Mitrofanov added.

Russian soccer club and national teams are suspended from European cups, World Cup and European Championship qualifiers and UEFA Nations League games from February 2022.

Courts and trials: what is known about the 15th package of sanctions against Russia

The EU Council adopted a new list of anti-Russian restrictions on December 16

Also on this day, Russian Football Union president Alexander Dyukov told Izvestia that he would ask Hungarian Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Minister Peter Szijjarto which two Russian soccer clubs had avoided being included in the EU's 15th package of sanctions.

Western countries have tightened sanctions pressure on Russia in connection with a special operation to protect Donbass. The decision to launch it was announced on February 24, 2022 after the situation in the region worsened due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.