MOSCOW, September 19 (RIA Novosti) – UEFA and FIFA, the two international federations responsible for governing association football (soccer) in Europe, will create a working group to decide the fate of Crimea’s football clubs by the middle of October, UEFA vice president Hryhoriy Surkis said. Crimea’s clubs have recently been renamed TSK Simferopol, SKChF Sevastopol and Zhemchuzhina Yalta.
"Until the middle of October, the working group of UEFA and FIFA will jointly develop a roadmap that will help all the parties and Crimean football to live and work in the legal framework of the football constitution – the charter of FIFA and EUFA," Surkis told journalists.
A four-way meeting between FUR (Football Union of Russia), FFU (Football Federation of Ukraine), UEFA and FIFA was held at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. The main topic of the meeting was the participation of three Crimean football clubs in the Russian Football Premier League. Ukraine strictly opposes this idea and has called for sanctions against Russia. Meanwhile, according to the Moscow Times, the RFU's executive committee has decided to include the three Crimean clubs teams in the southern zone of its second division, the country's third tier.
Surkis, the former chairman of the FFU, also noted that "unlike politics, traditions are radically different in the football family".
"The UEFA president and the secretary general came and called [on] both parties to find a solution useful to developing a roadmap in this conflict situation that would help to restore the legal framework for the two national associations to live and work in," Surkis explained.
