Representatives of up to 211 FIFA members will meet on Thursday (31 March 2022, 10 a.m. CEST) at the Doha Exhibition & Convention Center. According to the state agency TASS, the Russian association sent a delegation led by Secretary General Alexander Alayev. The German Football Association (DFB) will also be represented at the event in Qatar’s capital.
So far, only Russian teams are excluded from competitions, but not the association. That could change at the congress. Point 4 on the agenda of the event is: “Suspension or Expulsion of a Member Association”. Russia, which will host the FIFA World Cup in 2018, could face further sporting sanctions because of its war of aggression against Ukraine.
Unclear: Is there a vote on Russia’s association?
But does it really happen? FIFA initially did not answer a question from the sports show as to whether the congress would vote on a suspension of the Russian association or whether the agenda item would involve an extension of the current sanction. A three-quarters majority of the voting member associations present would be necessary for a suspension of the association. “The Russian federation has not violated anything. There are clear conditions for suspension or withdrawal of membership”, Russia’s Alexei Sorokin, former FIFA Council member and chief organizer of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, told TASS Agency. He sees no legal basis for punishment. According to TASS, Sorokin will also be present in Doha.
Russia had failed before the Court of Arbitration for Sport with applications for a temporary suspension of the suspension of its teams in FIFA and UEFA and could not take part in the playoffs of the European World Cup qualifiers. Most recently, the Russian association unexpectedly applied to UEFA to host the EM 2028 or the EM 2032, which had also only suspended the teams but not the association from Russia.