Premier League to ‘pull ALL games off Russian TV within next 24 hours’ in major snub over Ukraine
PREMIER League chiefs are set to pull all matches from Russian TV within the next 24 hours in response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
They’re teaming up with the Football League to axe contracts with the country’s broadcasters, meaning no games will be shown there.
Under the total blackout not even FA Cup games will be screened.
English football is hugely popular in Russia and the move will come as another big blow to the Kremlin as international sanctions bite.
Lawyers have given the Premier League the green light to scrap the last three months of this season’s TV contract, according to the Telegraph.
The deal with the Russian firm Rambler Media is worth a whopping £6 million a year to the division’s clubs.
Rambler is run by state-owned Sberbank, which has been sanctioned by the UK and US and is facing meltdown.
It comes after growing pressure from MPs and the Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries for the top tier to pull the plug.
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Last week the Premier League had announced that continued broadcasting to audiences in the country was under review.
This afternoon foreign secretary Liz Truss suggested the Government had been prepared to act if footy bosses refused to.
During a Commons hearing Labour MP Chris Bryant asked her whether she’d support axing Russia’s access to matches.
He said: “It’s the mixture the social the cultural the sporting the financial the economic some of these are more important than others.
The Premiership is very popular in Russia. Despite calls for them to stop broadcasting into Russia they’re still doing so.”
Ms Truss replied that it was “certainly something I’m prepared to talk to” Cabinet colleague Nadine Dorries about.
FIRMS TOLD: QUIT RUSSIA
The Culture Secretary is known to have been pressing the Premier League to terminate its contracts in Russia.
When pressed by MPs the Foreign Secretary said that other firms like McDonalds, Pepsi, and Coke should also pull out.
She added: “On all of these sanctions the number one objective is debilitating the Russian economy.
“But the other objective is isolating Russia, so I do think these measures are important.
“It’s very positive we’ve seen visa and MasterCard withdraw. We all saw the scenes on the Moscow subway when people couldn’t use [their cards].
“I think it’s very important to send a message to the people of Russia about what is happening.”