Russian football clubs have received almost €11 million in “solidarity” aid from UEFA since 2022

UEFA has paid out over €10.8 million in "solidarity" funds to Russian football clubs after they were banned from participating in European tournaments due to Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine.

This is reported by The Guardian.

Solidarity payments are usually given to clubs that have not performed well enough domestically to qualify for European competitions. According to UEFA, the funds are intended to “maintain a competitive balance in Europe’s top divisions, taking into account the additional income that some clubs receive from participating in European competitions”.

Russian clubs and the countryʼs national team have been banned from participating in international competitions since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Despite the ban, UEFA paid the Russian Football Union €3.3 million in the 2022/23 season, and another €3.3 million and €4.2 million in the following two seasons. The Russian Union also received €6.2 million in the season before the full-scale invasion.

Meanwhile, on July 27, the directors of five Ukrainian clubs complained to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin about the delay in the payment of solidarity funds for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons. These are the teams Chornomorets and Real Farma from Odesa, Metalurh from Zaporizhzhia, FC Phoenix Mariupol and FC Metalist 1925 from Kharkiv.

Club directors said that the Swiss bank was blocking payments, citing unclear requirements about the location of football clubs in a "combat zone", which it groundlessly considers the entire territory of Ukraine. At the same time, the bank did not provide any explanations or legal justification for such restrictions.

A UEFA spokesperson initially said they would issue a statement explaining the payments, but ultimately no response was provided.

• Russia retained its presence in UEFA because its federation, the Russian Football Union, was not disqualified.
• UEFA also tried to bring the Russian national team back to international football in 2023, but the proposal was withdrawn after several national associations, including England, publicly expressed their disagreement.
• In a letter to UEFA in March 2024, the executive committee of the Ukrainian Football Association complained that Russian clubs were receiving UEFA rating points in seasons in which they were disqualified.

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