The Executive Committee of the Russian Football Union (RFU) at its meeting on Friday decided to exclude Crimean football clubs from the Russian football championship, the TASS agency reported .

We are talking about the Crimean clubs SKCHF (Sevastopol), Zhemchuzhina (Yalta) and TSK (Simferopol), which in the summer of 2014 became participants in the second division of the Russian championship.

On July 31, 2014, the Bureau of the Executive Committee of the RFU approved the participation of clubs from Crimea and Sevastopol in the 2014/15 season in the second division of the Russian Championship in the “South” zone if they go through the necessary procedures for admission to the competition. Already on August 8, the teams of SKCHF (Sevastopol), TSK (Simferopol) and “Pearl” (Yalta) passed the PFL (Professional Football League) certification. And we played the first matches in the Russian Cup and in the second division.

On December 4, the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) banned Crimean football clubs from January 1, 2015 from taking part in the Russian football championships organized by the Russian Football Union (RFU). “A decision has been made to ban Crimean clubs from performing under the auspices of the RFU from January 1, 2015,” UEFA Secretary General Gianni Infantino said in Lausanne at the time. He explained that Crimea is recognized as a special territory where football will develop under the auspices of UEFA. And he clarified that the RFU will not be punished for the performances of Crimean teams in the second division of the Russian Championship in the 2014/15 season.

On January 22, 2015, a meeting between representatives of the Ministry of Sports and the heads of Crimean clubs took place. According to SKChF President Alexander Krasilnikov, at the meeting a position was “developed” on Crimean football. On January 23, Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the TASS agency that a football league could be created in Crimea, which would be legally subordinate to UEFA. The minister noted that UEFA is ready to allocate the necessary resources.

The RFU excluded Crimean clubs from the Russian football championship