UEFA President Michel Platini has said that it makes no sense for Ukraine and Russia to merge their football championships.

"At one point we thought about providing assistance to those leagues and national associations that cannot survive because of financial problems," Platini said at a press conference in Moscow on Friday.

"We're conducting an experiment in women's football, merging the championships of the Netherlands and Belgium. Then the idea of a joint Russian-Ukrainian league emerged. But it does not absolutely meet our principles.

"As the football federations of the two countries rightly said: 'We are big states, and our championships don't need to merge.' Talks of merger can be conducted in relation to small countries. You are autonomous and independent."

The idea of creating a unified CIS football league was put forward by CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom Alexei Miller. The strategy of the proposed tournament was announced at a meeting of the Unified Football Championship independent non-profit organization in Moscow on February 18, 2013. The supporters of the tournament think that such a league will benefit Russian and Ukrainian football.

However, this idea has a lot of enemies in Russia and in Ukraine. In particular, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is against it.