The Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld UEFA’s ban on all Russian club and national teams on Tuesday following an appeal from the Russian soccer federation. 

FIFA, which also placed a ban on Russia’s teams after the country’s invasion of Ukraine, has not yet been granted a verdict by CAS on a separate appeal. The ruling reportedly could be decided this week. 

• Russia was scheduled to play in the World Cup qualifiers against Poland on March 24.
• Poland was granted a bye from FIFA, as the Polish soccer federation refused to take the field against Russia. CAS said the ruling over Russia’s other FIFA appeal to give Poland a bye is also “likely to be issued at the end of this week.”

Russia’s appeal included naming the soccer federations of Belarus, England, France, Portugal, and Spain — all its future opponents — as active parties.

The decision to uphold the ban for UEFA is an interim ruling. A full appeal hearing is expected to take place in the upcoming weeks. 

Soccer Sanctions

UEFA and FIFA also announced in late February that Spartak Moscow would be removed from the Europa League. The Russian women’s team, which qualified for Euro 2022, is currently barred from playing, but legal cases are expected to be resolved before the event begins on July 6.

Federal lawmakers aren’t satisfied with the gender equity improvements the NCAA has made to Division I women’s basketball and other sports.

Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), and Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.) sent NCAA President Mark Emmert a letter on Monday stating the NCAA has “failed to take meaningful steps to correct deficiencies.”

• The letter criticized improvements across sports, noting it “appears to have prioritized implementing recommendations related to higher-visibility college sports.”
• The NCAA has made numerous fixes for basketball, but the letter called them “short-term steps to avoid repeating the public relations catastrophe.”
• It criticized the NCAA’s lack of commitment acting on several big-picture structural changes recommended by the 2021 gender equity review.
• It obtained emails providing new detail about how NCAA officials declined outside companies’ help during the 2021 tournament, as Front Office Sports previously reported regarding weight rooms.

Last year, lawmakers demanded that the NCAA ameliorate failures. This group followed up in July 2021.

Status Update

“Although our work is not done, we are focused on the many improvements made since [last year] that provide students across all our championships with a lifelong memorable experience,” the NCAA said in a statement to FOS. 

One recommendation, hosting both Final Fours in the same city, is off the table until 2031. As for several other major changes, “no doors are closed at this point,” NCAA VP of women’s basketball Lynn Holzman told FOS in late February.

The uncertainty around the future of the Carolina Panthers’ new $800 million training facility wasn’t made any clearer at Monday’s city council meeting. 

About 400 construction workers had their duties paused in Rock Hill, South Carolina, last week after the city missed a payment as part of an agreement to cover $225 million for infrastructure costs. 

Mayor John Gettys conceded that “the world has certainly changed since 2019,” when discussions of the project began, and that the city will push for a new agreement. The Rock Hill city manager claimed the Panthers told the city to not issue bonds.  

The city’s failure to fund the project has frustrated Panthers leadership, and the back-and-forth finger-pointing has put completion of the project in potential jeopardy, a source with knowledge of the city’s thinking told Front Office Sports. 

A real estate holding company run by Panthers owner Dave Tepper invested more than $170 million into the development, which would also serve as the team’s headquarters.

Panthers’ Land Grab

While there’s no indication that the Panthers are abandoning Rock Hill, Tepper has bought land near Bank of America Stadium, where the team has played since entering the league in 1996. 

• Tepper’s holding company purchased 4.6 acres for $15 million. 
• There are no plans yet to develop the site.
• The Panthers have the eighth-oldest stadium in the NFL. 

Tepper Sports and Entertainment said “work will continue with [its] partners to find an economically acceptable solution for all parties to continue this project in Rock Hill.”