Football in Crimea were expelled after UEFA ruled against the move. In March 2015, UEFA announced that it would treat Crimea as a “special zone,” as neither Russian nor Ukrainian, and that it would help Crimea develop its own soccer system. In return, Russia agreed that the Crimean clubs would not ask to play in European competitions for at least two years. Many players from Crimea played for the Ukraine national football team, among which Serhiy Lezhentsev, Serhiy Kovalets, Denys Holaido, Serhiy Yesin, Oleksandr Svystunov, and Oleksandr Yevtushok. Less often Crimean players played for the Russia national football team, among which is Evgeni
Crimea by "the commonality of the economy, the proximity, and close economic and cultural relations between the Crimean region and the Ukrainian SSR". At that time no vote or referendum took place, and Crimean population had no say in the transfer (also typical of other Soviet border changes). After the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, doubts have been expressed - from the Russian side by all means, but even by Western historians (Richard Sakwa, "Frontline Ukraine. Crisis In the Borderlands", 2015) - about the very legitimacy of the 1954 transition of Crimea to Ukraine; in the critics' view the