War in Ukraine: "It hurts my heart to punish the athletes" (Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA)

"Sanctions are necessary: this is not political politics, we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe. It hurts my heart to punish the athletes: this is not their war, they did not decide or want it. But we must show unity for peace," declared Aleksander Ceferin (SVN), president of UEFA, to the Italian daily Corriere della Sera on 11/03/2022, 15 days after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine led by Vladimir Putin's Russia on 24/02/2022.

• "The UEFA Executive Committee decided to relocate the final of the 2021-22 UEFA Men's Champions League from Saint Petersburg to Stade de France in Saint-Denis (FRA). The game will be played as initially scheduled on Saturday 28/05/2022 at 21:00 CET," announced UEFA on 25/02/2022.

• "FIFA and UEFA have today decided together that all Russian teams, whether national representative teams or club teams, shall be suspended from participation in both FIFA and UEFA competitions until further notice," announced the two bodies on 28/02/2022.

• The Russian national team was then excluded from the play-offs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, in which it was due to…