The European Women’s Football Championship will start in just over a couple of months. It is still unclear which country will replace Russia in Group C – or whether Russia will even be allowed to hold its place.
The opening match of the European Football Championship will be played in ten weeks, on July 6th. Still, it is still unclear what is the fourth team in the C-block.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fifa and Uefa announced they would shut down Russia’s international football operations. Russia was to play in the European Championships in Group C with Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Russia had nothing to do with the November World Championships in Men, as the country was excluded from the March World Cup qualifiers. Poland, which was to face Russia, made it to the finals of the qualifiers, where it defeated Sweden and redeemed its World Cup ticket.
Russia appealed the closure decision to the International Court of Appeal for Sport (CAS). It announced in early April that it was withdrawing its complaint against Fifa, but said it would continue its complaint against Uefa.
In practice, Russia can still be seen even in the summer on the European Green. Uefa did not discuss the fate of the country replacing Russia at a meeting of the management team in April and has just appealed.
– As is well known, the case is pending in the CAS. We expect some information from them as soon as possible. We know we are in a hurry with decision-making, but we need more information, Uefa President Alexander Ceferin said at the meeting.
– There is currently no new information on the case. None of the parties has requested an expedited procedure and the time for the hearings has not yet been decided, CAS was notified to The Athletic.
Countries playing in Block C have indicated that they do not intend to play against Russia. Switzerland and Sweden have added that the decision also applies to the European Women’s Summer Championships.
Already in February, the Netherlands announced that it was not “playing for the time being” against Russia or Belarus, which was assisting Russia in the war. Therefore, it also refused to play in the World Cup qualifiers against Belarus, and may even be excluded from the World Cup due to its decision.
Will Portugal be seen playing in the Finnish block in the Games?
In March, Ceferin said a Russian substitute is likely to be found in teams close to the European Championships venue. The replacement will probably be found in the teams that lost the European Championship qualifiers, ie Portugal, the Czech Republic or Ukraine.
Portugal played in the European Championship qualifiers with Finland in the E-block and was second behind the block winner from Finland.
However, the teams will have little time to prepare for the European Championship mix, as the competition is already knocking on the door. According to The Athletic, the Czech Republic has approached Uefa with a letter but has not yet received a reply. The Czech Republic should face Belarus in the World Cup qualifiers on June 28, but the Belarusians are not currently obtaining a visa to the Czech Republic.
The Ukrainian women’s national team is naturally suffering from the state of war in their country. The Portuguese federation has not received any further information from Uefa regarding the case, and Portugal does not have any matches on its calendar in preparation for the European Championships.
Uefa’s management team will next meet on May 11th.
The European Women’s Football Championship will be played in England from 6 to 31. July. shows the games on its channels.