Children are not guilty: UEFA Chairman has supported the softening of sanctions for youth national teams

The reason for the probable return of youth Russian national teams to football was called "an attempt to avoid rinseing brains to Russian children to hate the event and punish for what they are not guilty of. " UEFA President Alexander Cheferin believes that it is not necessary to punish children "for what they are not guilty, so it is necessary to mitigate restrictions on youth Russian national teams. He reported this in an interview with the British edition of The Telegraph.

He stressed that the UEFA's ban on Russia would continue to be in connection with the invasion of Ukraine. This will apply to national teams and clubs. At the same time, Alexander Cheferin expressed a desire to mitigate a ban for youth teams. The plans to do this last year were thwarted by the negative reaction of the world public.

The reason for the new initiative, according to him, is "an attempt to avoid rinseing brains to Russian children so that they hate the event and punishment for what they are not guilty of. " UEFA in the fall of 2023 curtailed Russia's return to international football. According to Sky News, three out of five UEFA Vice Presidents who participated in a private meeting have decided to prevent Russian youth teams from international tournaments.

UEFA Senior Senior Cresident Nielsen, after he voted for Russia's return to international tournaments, lost the post of chairman of the football Association of Sweden. Local football officials opposed the return of Russian teams. We will remind, in December 2023 UEFA excluded the Russian national team from the League of Nations 2024/25.