By Andrew Warshaw
April 5 – For the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia’s neighbour and ally, Belarus, has been stripped of staging a major multi-nation football competition after UEFA announced it had removed the country as hosts of the 2025 women’s under-19 event.
No mention was made of the move in any media communication after UEFA’s executive committee meeting in Lisbon on Tuesday.
But at a press conference following the organisation’s annual Congress today where Aleksander Ceferin was re-elected unopposed, he was forced to admit in answer to a question that action had been taken against Belarus which was awarded the women’s under-19s in April, 2021 – 10 months before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
More than 100 European Parliament lawmakers had written to UEFA calling for Belarus to be excluded from the Euro 2024 qualifying competition.
UEFA had declined to go that far, but for some time, Belarussian clubs and national teams have not been allowed to stage single international games on home soil because of support for Russia’s invasion.
That policy by UEFA has now been extended significantly by stripping Belarus of the authority to host an official competition.
“We decided yesterday that we cannot do it,” Ceferin told reporters. “We withdrew it (Belarus) but we don’t have another venue yet.”
Ceferin also confirmed that Russian clubs and national teams would remain banned as long as the war in Ukraine continues.
“My opinion is that until the war stops it would be very hard for us to change anything.”
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