UEFA: Russian teams banned from European football

And the impact on the UEFA club competitions next season

Following UEFA’s Executive Committee meeting on Monday, Europe’s governing football body officially excluded Russia from participating in their competitions among other related matters. Back in February, UEFA had suspended Russia but left much to be desired regarding how it would affect its competitions moving forward. That was clarified on Monday night in a release explaining all the changes.

I will focus on what has changed for the UEFA club competitions next season as a result of the Russian clubs’ absence. It is worth noting more changes are to be made to the revised access list depending on who wins each UEFA club competition and how they do domestically.

Russian Domestic Results

Russia, eighth in the national association coefficients following the 2020/21 season, was due to have five European places overall, with two coming in the Champions League. With three rounds to go, Zenit won their fourth successive title on the weekend, and is the club most affected by this outcome. Russia’s ban cost them Champions League football.

Currently second, Dynamo Moskva would have qualified for Europe had it not been for the ban. They would have been poised to start in the penultimate round of qualifying, being assured at least a Europa League group stage place had they failed there.

Assuming Dymamo wins the cup, Sochi would have occupied the Europa League spot, starting at the last round of qualifying. With Europa Conference League football being guaranteed in this case, Sochi will miss out on what would be their second ever European campaign and first foray into a group stage.

As for the other two places, CSKA Moskva lose out on a place in the Europa Conference League in the third round of qualifying. That would have given them just two rounds to negotiate to make the group phase. Lokomotiv Moskva or Krasnodar would have entered the second round of qualifying.

As for the Russian Cup, it has reached the semifinal stage with Dynamo Moskva, Spartak Mosvka both left along with second tier sides Yenisey and Alania Vladikavkaz. Had Dynamo won the cup, the winner would have taken the Europa League place, with Sochi and CSKA Moskva playing in the Conference League.

Sadly for the Russian clubs, that is all mute now as they will all miss out on European football and a massive opportunity to improve their respective coefficients as well as that of their country heading into the 2024 reform of the UEFA club competitions.

Changes to next season’s UEFA club competitions

As a result of Russia’s exclusion, UEFA needed to re-balance their access list for next season to accommodate the vacancies created. The revised list can be found here.

Of course, the most pertinent changes comes in UEFA’s flagship club competition. At the time of releasing the changes, it was made official that the Scottish champions would no longer need to partake in the Champions League playoffs, taking Zenit’s place in the group stage.

The winner of the Cypriot top flight will be bumped up a round to the third round of qualifying while the Croatian winners and FC Zurich, the Swiss winners, will start in the second round instead.

This will not be the only changes made following Villarreal’s exit from the Champions League on Tuesday night to Liverpool. Since the Reds and both Manchester City and Real Madrid will make the Champions League via league performance, there is another vacated place in the group stage.

While it is not yet official, it is expected that Shakhtar Donetsk, the nominated Ukrainian club to take the country’s highest available European place, will end up taking the group stage place. The Pitmen were expected to start in the playoff round.

Whoever wins the Danish Superliga will likely start in the playoff stage instead, with either Partizan Belgrade or Crvena zvezda of Serbia entering the third round. The Greek and Israeli winners are expected to start in the second round as a result of the changes.

Finally, Sturm Graz, the Austrian runner-ups and Rangers, the Scottish runner-ups in waiting, will enter the third qualifying round of the so-called non-champions path. This will ensure both teams a place in the Europa League group phase. However, if Rangers overturn their Europa League semifinal deficit and go all the way, they will automatically enter the Champions League group stage.

Should Rangers’ opponents Leipzig win the Europa League and finish in the top four in the Bundesliga (they are fifth with two games left), then the third place team from Ligue 1 (Rennes at the moment) will take the vacated group stage place, surrendering their place in the qualifying round.

Should either scenario mentioned between Rangers and Leipzig occur, the vice champion of Turkey (currently Fenerbahce) and Dynamo Kyiv, Ukraine’s second ranked team at the time of the season’s premature end, will start in the Champions League third qualifying round as well.

Other changes see the Turkish and Danish Cup winners taking a place in the Europa League playoff stage, which will lead to group stage football come September. The Serbian Cup champions will have a crack at Europa League qualifying, starting in the qualifying round.

In total, there were 23 places that were moved forward as a result of Russia’s ban across the three club competitions. As previously mentioned regarding the Champions League winner place, there will be more places that will receive a bye. Depending on the Europa League and Europa Conference League winners, that number could increase to over 30 places.

The rest of this month will determine many other things regarding who else will benefit from the changes. Updates to the incoming changes can be found here. Everything will be known by month’s end ahead of the draws for the qualifying rounds set to take place in June.