FIFA ordered European football clubs to ignore Russia sanctions, investigation finds
FIFA has pressured multiple European football clubs to pay outstanding transfer fees to Russia, despite international sanctions and banking restrictions, according to an investigation by Follow the Money published on Dec. 5.
Football clubs are forced to pay outstanding fees even if doing so runs the risk of violating sanctions against Russia.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the FIFA Football Tribunal has ruled on 13 cases involving clubs claiming payments from other clubs that had lapsed after sanctions were imposed on Moscow, the investigative outlet Follow the Money reported.
In all cases, clubs were told to pay within 45 days or face a ban for three transfer periods.
In one such case, the London-based club West Ham United was ordered to pay the sanctioned Russian club CSKA Moscow or face a ban, as West Ham had not paid the full transfer fee of 26 million euros (over $30 million) for the Croatian player Nikola Vlasic.
West Ham argued it could not complete the payments because CSKA, its owner, managing director, and the financial institutions it banked with all appeared on sanctions lists. Paying the outstanding fees would violate U.K. law, the club argued.
FIFA ruled that West Ham had to pay anyway.
According to Follow the Money's investigation, FIFA issued the same ruling in 13 cases — eight involving European teams owing money to Russian organizations, and five involving Russian teams owing clubs in Europe.
"The existence of sanctions has no effect on the existence and expiry date of a debt," FIFA said in multiple rulings.
West Ham appealed FIFA's decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in May 2025 and won the case, with CAS saying it was "objectively impossible to make payment of the second instalment."
In only one other known instance, the Swedish Djurgardens succeeded in convincing FIFA it could not legally make payments to the Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg due to national and EU law.
Publicly available documents suggest that the other European clubs have all found ways to pay the Russian teams for fear of facing FIFA penalties, Follow the Money reported.
FIFA's rulings put the sports governing body at odds with the global sanctions regime against Russia — and run the risk of violating international law.
While FIFA suspended Russia from all its competitions in 2022 following the launch of the full-scale invasion, the organization has since drawn criticism for actions related to Russia and Ukraine. In December 2024, FIFA sparked outrage when it displayed a map during the 2026 World Cup draw that excluded Crimea from Ukraine.
In 2023, FIFA also faced backlash when it lifted the ban on participation by under-17 athletes from Russia.
