In each case, they were forceful appeals. And they underscore the need for soccer’s top federations to take a clear position around Russia’s war of aggression. But their dealings with Russia continue to be inadequate.

This is most glaringly evident with Fifa President Gianni Infantino. At the Uefa Convention in Vienna, he was only a guest speaker, but even almost three months after the war of aggression began, the Swiss failed to directly criticize Vladimir Putin and Russia. Instead, he only addressed policy makers in a general, cloudy way, which was supposed to restore peace. It would be interesting to know why exactly Infantino is so friendly to a criminal regime.

Why is Russia’s federation chief allowed to continue to be on the Uefa executive – and the Russian federation a member of Uefa?

Just like the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, Infantino was already in the past years among those officials who attracted attention with particular closeness to Putin and Russia. After Russia’s invasion of Crimea and its open support for the separatist People’s Republics in eastern Ukraine, Infantino’s Fifa offered Putin’s regime the stage for a lavish sports festival at the 2018 World Cup – and the opportunity to boost popularity at home. And afterwards, Infantino even purred that everyone had now “fallen in love with Russia.

Uefa, on the other hand, is positioning itself more clearly overall, as was also evident in the speech of its president Aleksander Čeferin on Wednesday. The tradition of “political neutrality,” that is, this mantra that IOC boss Bach and other sports officials pull out even at the most absurd moments in order not to take an unequivocal stand against dictators and aggressors, is no longer tenable in the face of war and atrocities, he said. But there could be more to come from Uefa as well.

While some penalties have indeed been handed out. Russia’s club teams will not be allowed to participate in the European Cup in the coming – Season , and the country’s bid to host the European Championship in 2028 or 2032 has been halted; against this backdrop, Russia’s soccer is even already debating plans to switch to the Asian confederation. But the country has so far refrained from imposing any other sanctions.

Thus, it is incomprehensible why the Russian federation president and Gazprom-Neft manager Alexander Dyukov is allowed to continue to be a member of the Uefa executive – and the Russian federation as such a member of Uefa. This is how bitter moments arise, such as the one on Wednesday, when the head of the Ukrainian federation, wearing a bulletproof vest and from a bombed stadium, gave his depressing speech, while the Russian secretary general stayed in the hall among the delegates like a good friend of the family.