Football authorities in Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, said on Nov. 22 they would like to form their own national team, but a Russian sports official recoiled from a notion that could upset at a stroke Russian national sentiment, Western powers, Ukraine and global soccer bodies.
Crimean Football Union (CFU) President Yuri Vetokha said a side representing the peninsula, whose seizure from Ukraine triggered Western economic sanctions, could be ready by May and that he would be “delighted if it could play against Russia”.
