The rhetoric around the prospect of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia ramped up in recent days.

Earlier this week, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s invasion of their country. Then Trump called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator without elections”.

It is important to note that there is no doubt Russia started the war by invading Ukraine, and Zelensky was democratically elected in 2019. Elections were due to be held in 2024 but were suspended under martial law due to the invasion.

But the U.S. President’s comments have kickstarted a discussion in sport about Russia being allowed back into the fold if a peace deal is struck. How would that happen? And how far away are they from potentially returning to international football?

The Athletic answers the key questions…

What happened after the war broke out?

In February 2022, football’s global governing body FIFA and UEFA, the governing body for Europe, released a joint statement to announce they had suspended all Russian clubs and national teams from participating in their competitions “until further notice”.

“Football is fully united here and in full solidarity with all the people affected in Ukraine,” the statement added. “Both Presidents (of FIFA and UEFA) hope that the situation in Ukraine will improve significantly and rapidly so that football can again be a vector for unity and peace amongst people.”

The International Olympic Committee also announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would have to compete under the banner ‘Individual Neutral Athlete’, referred to as AIN, at the Paris Olympics due to the ongoing war in Ukraine. At the 2024 Summer Games, only 15 athletes from Russia competed in events such as tennis, canoeing, cycling, gymnastics and swimming.

Russian Daniil Medvedev competed at the Olympics last year (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Russian football teams, both at club and national team level, have not played in UEFA’s European competitions since their suspension, nor are they taking part in the 2026 men’s World Cup qualifiers that get under way next month.

The suspension remains in place and UEFA have said no discussions about Russia’s return have taken place. “This matter has not been raised for the time being, and we have no comment to make at this time,” UEFA said.

What has been said?

Although UEFA said Russia’s return to its club competitions and international football has not been discussed, Zoran Lakovic, their governing body’s director of national associations, spoke at the Russian Football Union’s (RFU) extraordinary conference earlier this month and said he hopes to see the country return to football in 2025.

“Sport should unite, not divide people,” Lakovic said, as reported by Izvestia, a Russian broadsheet. “It should remain completely independent of political influence.

“Unfortunately, in 2025 we do not see this with regard to Russian athletes. I hope that during this year Russian sport will finally return to its former place: the peak of European sport.”

On Thursday, Lord Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics and a candidate to be the IOC’s next president, told Piers Morgan’s Uncensored YouTube channel that he would “look very closely” at allowing Russia to return from the cold if he becomes the next IOC president and a peace deal has been agreed.

“If we get to a situation — and I hope we do — where we have a peace agreement and it meets with the satisfaction of both sides, then it is far better to have people in your sport than sitting outside,” Lord Coe said.

What led to Russia’s suspension?

Interestingly, the RFU is not actually suspended — they are still part of UEFA and FIFA. It is the country’s football teams that have been suspended.

Following Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, European clubs and national teams quickly made clear that they would refuse to play against their Russian counterparts.

FIFA’s first response was to say Russia could continue to play under the ‘Football Union of Russia’ name and without the Russian flag or national anthem being present at international fixtures, only for them to quickly change course and join forces with UEFA and ban them from all competitions.

Spartak Moscow lost their Europa League spot in 2022 (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images)

This was supported by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled in favour of FIFA and UEFA when the RFU appealed against their suspension.

Russia was due to host the Champions League final in May 2022, only for that to be moved to Paris by UEFA.

In 2023, UEFA announced plans to reinstate Russia’s Under-17s to play in the following year’s youth European Championship. After significant pushback from member associations, including England’s Football Association, UEFA backtracked.

“Speaking as an English FA, we made our position very clear 18 months ago: we won’t play Russia in any category age group as long as there is a war,” FA chair Debbie Hewitt said in October 2023. “We felt very strong in that. That is a position we retain.”

Is there a process that needs to be followed if they are to return?

Yes, in Europe UEFA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) would need to sanction their return. Article 27 of UEFA’s statutes notes that decisions “shall be made in elections and votes if supported by more than half of the valid votes cast by the voting members present”. If the vote ends in a tie, then Aleksander Ceferin, UEFA’s president, casts the deciding vote.

The ExCo comprises Ceferin and up to 19 other members, 16 of which are elected by the UEFA congress, two by the European Club Association and another by the European Leagues. All members hold the same voting rights.

The ExCo currently has 18 members, meaning 10 of them would need to vote in favour of Russia returning to international football.

One of the ExCo members is Aleksandr Dyukov, the president of the RFU and chairman of Russian oil company Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of the state-owned Gazprom. Dyukov can still attend ExCo meetings.

From a FIFA standpoint, if UEFA’s ExCo has already ratified Russia’s return to its club competitions and international football, then the FIFA Council would unlikely stand in the way of their return. These decisions are made at the confederation level and the FIFA Council often follows them as a matter of principle. The FIFA Council, which consists of 37 members, does not have a representative from Russia on it.

Could Russia end up playing at the 2026 World Cup?

Given they are not involved in the qualifiers for the tournament, it is extremely unlikely they could join in at this late stage, especially as the CAS decision still stands.

The threat of litigation from other member associations would also be very real if Russia were just allowed to play in the World Cup — which is being hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S. — without qualifying.

Playing in UEFA’s European Championship in 2028, which is being co-hosted by England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, is a more likely possibility if Russia’s return is voted through before the qualifiers begin in March 2027.

The RFU previously considered the idea of leaving UEFA to join the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) following their suspension, but in December 2023 the RFU voted unanimously against the proposal.

Given the AFC’s World Cup qualifiers are already under way, coupled with how long it would take them to switch confederations, there is no chance of them joining the AFC and qualifying for next year’s World Cup that way.

Putin with FIFA president Gianni Infantino in 2019 (Evgenia Novozhenina/AFP/Getty Images)

Would a peace deal enable Russians to invest in Premier League clubs again?

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the UK government described Roman Abramovich as a “pro-Kremlin oligarch” and listed him as one of multiple Russians who were sanctioned, which forced him to sell Chelsea Football Club.

At the moment, there is not a single Russian footballer playing in the Premier League, nor has a top-flight club sold a player to Russia since the war began. The Premier League also suspended its six-year deal with Match TV, a Russian broadcaster, that was due to start at the beginning of the 2022-23 season.

As for whether Russians would be able to buy a top-flight side, that is much more nuanced than a simple yes or no.

A Russian individual who has not been sanctioned by the UK Government can, in theory, still buy a Premier League or English Football League club — and they have been able to do so despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.

But for that to happen, they would still need to pass the Premier League’s Owners’ and Directors’ Test (OADT). The league updated its rules on this test after Abramovich had to sell Chelsea, with it now stating that an individual would fail the OADT if they “become a UK Sanctions Restricted Person”.

If it is a Russian entity attempting to buy a club, then the Premier League’s handbook states that they would fail the OADT if “they or any of their directors, officers or employees are the subject of UK Sanctions”.

GO DEEPER

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(Top photo: Russia celebrate scoring at the 2018 World Cup against Croatia; by Laurence Griffiths via Getty Images)