Football teams from Belarus will also continue to be able to take part in international competitions. The UEFA Executive Committee decided against an exclusion.
UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin reported in a press conference on Wednesday (05.04.2023) about the Executive Committee meeting the day before. “We discussed Belarus and decided that the country would be deprived of the women’s U19 championship”said Ceferin. In other ways, will the “Situation Observed”.
demand from EUparliamentarians after exclusion
Previously, there had been a letter to Ceferin from more than 100 members of the European Parliament, calling for Belarus to be excluded. The letter from the Members of Parliament said: “The fact that the Belarusian national team takes part in the European Championship will later be used by (President) Lukashenko and his propaganda team to prove that he is well recognized in the international community.”
This was in addition to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Belarus supports the war militarily. Members of Parliament also criticized the internal political situation in Belarus.
Russian Gazprom manager sits in Executive Committee
Regarding the suspension of Russian teams, Ceferin said: “Until the war ends, I see no way to change anything.” However, such decisions must be made by the Executive Committee.
There are currently one woman and 19 men on the UEFA Executive Committee. One of them is still Alexander Dyukov, President of the Russian Football Union. The Gazprom manager can continue in his role because FIFA and UEFA only suspended the Russian teams, not the associations. At the UEFA Congress in Lisbon, Dyukov refused to talk to the sports show on the subject.
Alexander Dyukov, head of Gazprom Neft and member of the UEFA executive board
Belarus have already played two games in the European Championship qualifier
Belarus is currently playing in the qualifier for the European Men’s Championship in Germany 2024. The team lost their previous two matches in Group I with a score of 5-0 against Switzerland and 2-1 in Romania. Israel, Andorra and Kosovo also play in the group.
The game against Switzerland was played in Serbia, as UEFA decided in early March 2022, a few days after the start of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, that Belarusian teams must play their nominal home games on a neutral pitch.
So far all demands in Belarus have been in vain
Most recently, parts of the Greens parliamentary group and a group of members of parliament from the Swiss National Council had also called on UEFA to exclude Belarus. In July 2022, 1. FC Köln, who are in the Europa Conference League played, a similar letter to Ceferin – and according to information from the sports show, has not yet received an answer. At the end of March, a human rights organization handed over 17,000 signatures to UEFA from a petition to exclude Belarus.