Politico, one of the top leading newspapers in Brussels, has published an interview with Aleksander Čeferin, UEFA President, conducted during the Champions League, Europa League, and Conference League draws last week. Naturally, the conversation revolved around the relationship between football and politics and the mutual influences, with special focus in Russia and Israel.
When Russia invaded Ukraine three and a half years ago, UEFA immediately responded by banning all Russian clubs from their competitions. However, the same didn't happen when Israel launched a campaign on Gaza and the West Bank after the Hamas terrorist attacks in October 2023 that quickly turned into a genocide, with over 60,000 people dead and the Gaza strip completely destroyed.
Politico journalist Ali Walker asked Čeferin if they've had any discussions about expelling Israeli clubs from your competitions over the war in Gaza (this year, Maccabi Tel Aviv will play in Europa League). Čeferin said that while what's happening with civilians in Palestine "is personally hurting, killing me", his opinion is against banning athletes. "I'm not a supporter of banning the athletes. Because what can an athlete do to their government to stop the war? It's very, very hard."
So why was different with Russia? Political hysteria. Here's his explanation: "The ban for Russian teams is, I think, three and a half years. Did the war stop? It didn't. So for now, I don't know.
"I have to say that with the situation in Russia and Ukraine, there was a super strong political pressure. Now it's more a pressure of the civil society than politicians, because politicians are obviously, when it comes to wars and victims, very pragmatic. I cannot say what will happen. There are talks about everything, but me personally, I'm against kicking the athletes out."
Čeferin doesn't want to ban any athletes, but Russia ¡s are still banned, while Israeli's aren't
He went on to explain how previous bans from UEFA, like when Yugoslavia was banned from European Championships in the 1990s, it resulted in "hatred against the Wests that still stays", explaining that players were also against Slobodan Milošević (Yugoslavian president at the time, later charged with war crimes) but they still suffered the consequences anyway.
"So, for me, sport should try to show the way but not by forbidding the athletes to compete. But to be honest, again, with the war, Russia-Ukraine, we had an almost hysterical political reaction. We were among the first to act, truly believing that sport could help put an end to this tragedy. Sadly, life showed us otherwise.
"Now I don't see much reaction from politics. From civil society it's huge. And I cannot understand how a politician who can do a lot to stop the slaughter, anywhere, can go to sleep seeing all the children and all the civilians dead. I don't understand it. You know, the idea football should solve these problems? No way."
Earlier in the interview, Aleksander Čeferin revealed that UEFA tried to bring young players from Russia, under 17, back to UEFA, with the support of the executive committee, "but then it was such a political hysteria, such a pressure on certain members of the executive committee; they didn't change their mind but they asked us to wait because they were privately, personally so attacked that they couldn't stand it anymore", and feels that children [from Russia] should be treated differently because they are raised in fear and hatred.