Russian soccer will relinquish its position on the UEFA executive committee during the elections scheduled for April.

Russian soccer will relinquish its position on the UEFA executive committee during the elections scheduled for April. 

Russia will lose its position on the influential UEFA executive committee following the upcoming elections of the European soccer organization in six weeks.

Additionally, Lise Klaveness from Norway is the sole candidate for a newly established quota position for women, as announced by UEFA on Monday. Furthermore, soccer legend Andrii Shevchenko is standing for election for the first time to succeed his predecessor, Andriy Pavelko, as president of the Ukrainian soccer federation.

Alexander Dyukov, the CEO of the Russian oil company Gazprom Neft, is not included in the list of candidates released by UEFA for the election meeting scheduled for April 3 in Belgrade, Serbia.

Dyukov was initially elected to UEFA’s ruling committee in 2021 and had expressed his intention to seek another four-year term in an interview two years ago. His omission from the UEFA candidate list was surprising, especially given that he was re-elected as president of the Russian soccer federation three weeks prior, a position he has held since 2019. UEFA clarified that Dyukov did not submit an application to maintain his seat on the executive committee and has not been deemed ineligible. All candidates for elections to the ruling bodies of UEFA and FIFA in Europe must undergo mandatory evaluations by governance experts. Despite being on a British government sanctions list and facing a ban on Russian teams from international competitions following the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Dyukov continued to participate in UEFA meetings and matches across Europe.

In the early days of the conflict, FIFA and UEFA successfully contended at the Court of Arbitration for Sport that allowing Russian teams to compete would lead to disorder in their tournaments, as some European nations refused to face Russian opponents.

Moreover, UEFA terminated its sponsorship agreement with the Russian state energy company Gazprom for the Champions League due to the ongoing war and relocated the 2022 Champions League final from the Gazprom-owned Zenit St. Petersburg stadium.

Dyukov represents the latest Russian soccer official, closely associated with Zenit, to secure positions in UEFA and FIFA elections. Other notable figures include Alexey Sorokin, who organized the 2018 World Cup, former sports minister Vitaly Mutko, and Sergey Fursenko.