THE FAI HAVE reaffirmed their stance on playing against Russian teams after Uefa moved to re-admit a Russian youth team to international competition.

European football’s governing body swiftly barred all Russian teams from competitions last year in response to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine, but eased the ban by readmitting Russia’s national U17 team on Tuesday.

The move led to a number of football associations – including the English FA, Poland, Romania and Sweden – expressing their unwillingness to support the stance.

And today the FAI have also confirmed no representative teams from Ireland will play against any team from Russia.

An FAI statement read: “At a meeting of the FAI Board last night, it was unanimously agreed to re-affirm our clearly stated position that no representative Ireland teams, at any age group, would play against any team from Russia in any competition at the present time.”

Yesterday, the Ukrainian FA confirmed they will boycott all competitions featuring Russian sides. It also called on other Uefa members to boycott matches against Russian teams.

Announcing the decision to let Russia U17s compete in their competitions again, Uefa argued that a “generation of minors” was being deprived of the right to compete, and that children should not be punished for the actions of adults.

However, it said Russian teams would not be able to play on Russian territory, and that the country’s flag, anthem and national playing kit would be barred.

Ukraine has repeatedly called for blanket bans on Russia from international sporting events and has threatened to boycott the 2024 Paris Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes take part.

With reporting from – © AFP 2023