“It has long been UEFA’s intention to discuss the situation in Belarus at the next meeting of our Executive Committee,” wrote President Alexander Ceferin. Russian Alexander Dyukov also sits on the Executive Committee.
After demands from EU parliamentarians, the European Football Association wants to discuss a possible exclusion of teams from Belarus. This was announced by UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin in a letter to members of the EU Parliament, which was presented to the German Press Agency on Friday. “It has long been UEFA’s intention to discuss the situation in Belarus at the next meeting of our Executive Committee,” Ceferin wrote.
The meeting will take place in Lisbon on April 4th. A day later, the UEFA Congress will also take place in Portugal, where Ceferin will be re-elected unopposed for a third and final term. “We would like to assure you that the situation in Belarus is being thoroughly examined from a factual and legal point of view,” said the 55-year-old Slovenian.
MEPs had called for the exclusion not only of teams from Russia but also from Belarus because of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. UEFA is closely monitoring the worrying developments “that you mentioned in your letter,” Ceferin wrote in the letter. The decisions to be made in this regard would “exclusively” fall within the competence of the UEFA Executive Committee, it said.
The Russian Alexander Dyukov also sits on the executive committee. The president of the Russian Football Association and Gazprom manager has retained his post because the world governing body FIFA and UEFA only suspended Russian teams. The Russian and Belarusian associations are also members of UEFA and FIFA.