Hoddle says teams ‘don’t want’ Russia trip – despite Russian sides being banned
Glenn Hoddle will be relieved his former sides Chelsea and Tottenham will not have to travel to Russia this Champions League campaign.
Thomas Tuchel's side will face AC Milan, RB Salzburg, and Dinamo Zagreb, while their north London rivals were drawn against Eintracht Frankfurt, Sporting Lisbon and Marseille. However, there was never any chance of being put in the same Champions League group as a Russian side because UEFA banned all of them from competing in European competitions.
Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine prompted Europe's governing body to exclude all Russian teams from this season’s Champions League, Europa League, and UEFA Conference League. However, this seemed to slip Hoddle's mind when he was asked what teams managers want to avoid in the Champions League draw.
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When asked what countries a manager wants to avoid, Hoddle replied "Well, certainly to Russia, yeah, or somewhere you know where the weather's not so good.
"You didn't want that, you don't want that, let's be fair. Everyone says we'll take whatever, you don't want that…"
It was an unfortunate slip from the former England manager but one which did confuse many viewers. Russia's football federation and four other clubs appealed their exclusion to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. But their approach fell on deaf ears as CAS opted to uphold UEFA's decision.
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"Russia will have no affiliated clubs participating in UEFA club competitions in the 2022/23 season," a statement from UEFA confirmed in May, three months after Russia began their invasion of Ukraine.
"Consequently, the respective access lists of the men’s and women’s club competitions have been rebalanced in accordance with the principles set out in the relevant competition regulations.
"Furthermore, Russia will be assigned a number of coefficient points equivalent to the lowest number they have earned in any of the last five seasons, i.e. 4.333 points for the men’s association club coefficient and 1.750 for the women’s association club coefficient for the purpose of points calculation for the 2022/23 season."
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