Human rights organizations demand the exclusion of Belarus

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On February 28, 2022, UEFA and FIFA will suspend Russian teams from their competitions. This was after individual countries, including Switzerland, had already decided not to play against Russian teams. They did not want to go that far in the case of Belarus, because the Belarusians are not officially a party to the war; but UEFA wanted to set an example due to Belarus involvement in Russian war crimes. Five days later she banned international matches on Belarusian territory and no spectators are allowed to attend in exile. Belarusians are currently receiving hospitality from Serbia, Turkey and Armenia. This is the current status.

Ceferin sees the demand as populist

In October 2022, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin saw no need for action to change that. “It’s a bit populist to demand ‘throw everyone out’. We don’t see any reason to do that at the moment,” the Slovenian told “Sport Bild”. And further: “Politicians must respect our decision-making power. We don’t preach to politicians and governments what to do either.”

That annoys many. The Swiss human rights organization Libereco and the Campax movement have launched a petition, signed by more than 16,000 people, demanding that Ceferin exclude Belarus from the Euro 2024. They write: «We advocate the exclusion of Belarus Russia from the Belarusian regime for the crimes of the Belarusian regime – more than 1400 political prisoners, including 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski, crimes against humanity, support for the Russian offensive war against Ukraine EM 2024. » Three open letters have been published in recent days calling for UEFA to be excluded from the European Championship: from 30 Swiss MPs, 46 Greens MPs and more than 100 EU MPs.

Demo in Nyon on Friday

According to Libereco, the level of football in Belarus is also catastrophic. Regime-critical players would be discriminated against. Likewise unwilling umpires. Even non-compliant sports media would suffer and sometimes be banned. And there is systematic corruption in the association.

To give media weight to the request, Libereco called for a demonstration in front of UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon on Friday.

In the meantime, legal advice commissioned by the German Olympic Sports Federation has concluded that the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes cannot be regarded as a violation of international human rights and is therefore permitted. So there is nothing to prevent Belarus from being excluded in this area.

No exko meeting before the game in Switzerland

“There is quite a lot of pressure,” admits UEFA Secretary General Theodore Theodoridis in an interview with Blick. “For example, through this letter from the EU parliamentarians. Whether there will be a change in our position after a reanalysis of the situation will be discussed in the Executive Committee. There is no meeting this week, so Switzerland’s game is proceeding as planned. The next Exko Meeting is scheduled for April 4.” The topic is currently not on the agenda, “but urgent and short-term topics can of course always be added”.

Source : Blick