Manchester City's Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko before his team's Premier League match against Everton on February 27. Photo / Getty Images
Manchester City's Ukrainian defender Oleksandr Zinchenko before his team's Premier League match against Everton on February 27. Photo / Getty Images
Premier League and Football League clubs have formally cancelled television feeds to Russian broadcasters and the top tier will hand over £1million to humanitarian causes in Ukraine.
As revealed by Telegraph Sport on Monday, the remaining three months on a £6 million-a-year agreement between the Premier League and Rambler Mediais being terminated immediately.
Competition executives had come under pressure from ministers and MPs to stop transmissions as part of efforts across sport and business to isolate Russia.
Nigel Huddleston, the sports minister, immediately welcomed the decision as "absolutely the right thing to do... in response to Putin's barbaric, senseless invasion".
"Russia cannot be allowed to legitimise its illegal war through sport and culture, and we must work together to ensure Putin remains a pariah on the international stage," he added.
After a meeting between clubs, the Premier League said in a statement that they had "unanimously agreed to suspend our agreement with Russian broadcast partner Rambler (Okko Sport) with immediate effect and to donate £1 million to support the people of Ukraine".
"The league strongly condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine," it added. "We call for peace and our thoughts are with all those impacted. The £1 million donation will be made to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to deliver humanitarian aid directly to those in need."
The EFL then confirmed it was pulling the plug on its own service with Match TV and the privately-owned Football-TV.
"Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent humanitarian crisis that is unfolding in the region, the EFL has suspended the broadcast feeds of its matches in the Russian Federation," the EFL said.
"Access to the EFL's iFollow service and other Club streaming services have also been withdrawn in the territory."
Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick in Bayern Munich's 7-1 demolition of RB Salzburg on Tuesday. Photo / Getty Images
Robert Lewandowski ends £4.1m Huawei deal amid accusations over Chinese company's links to Russia
Robert Lewandowski has terminated his sponsorship deal with Huawei amid accusations the Chinese company helped Russia defend itself from cyberattacks over its invasion of Ukraine.
The prolific Polish striker was named Best FIFA Men's Player Award in 2020 and 2021 and this morning NZT scored a Champions League hat-trick as Bayern Munich demolished RB Salzburg 7-1.
Lewandowski's agent confirmed he had severed a €5m (£4.14m) contract with the technology giant, without providing any more detail.
"Today, we decided to end the marketing cooperation between Robert Lewandowski and the Huawei brand," Tomasz Zawiślak told Interia Sport.
"Therefore, the implementation of all promotional services has been suspended on our part."
The company said: "Huawei CBG Polska regrets the end of the partnership with Robert Lewandowski. We appreciate our long-term cooperation and wish him every success in the future."
The move came four days after Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, the former Conservative leader and head of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told parliament: "When the Russian 4G system was attacked and hacked and brought down, it was Huawei, based in Cambridge, that actually helped repair the system for the Russians."
Duncan Smith provided no evidence for his claim, which he made a fortnight after the Government delayed its plan to remove Huawei from Britain's telecoms network by six months, blaming the coronavirus crisis.
Ministers had intended on cutting the share of Huawei equipment to 35 per cent of the full fibre and 5G access networks by next January amid concerns its equipment could be used by China for espionage or to disrupt the UK's critical national infrastructure.
Huawei has been accused of posing a security risk by the US Government and a number of Conservative MPs, something it has always denied.
Asked whether Lewandowski's decision was linked to Huawei's continuing to operate in Russia, Zawiślak replied: "We do not have full information on this, so I will stop at what we have already stated."
Lewandowski last month backed Poland's threat to boycott their World Cup play-off against Russia over the latter country's invasion of Ukraine.
"I can't imagine playing a match with the Russian National Team in a situation when armed aggression in Ukraine continues," he posted on Twitter.
"Russian footballers and fans are not responsible for this, but we can't pretend that nothing is happening."
