Lithuania fined for refusing to play with Belarus
21 May 2024 10:59
The Lithuanian Football Federation has been fined for refusing to allow their women’s national team to play two matches of the 2025 UEFA Women’s European Championship qualifiers against Belarus. This was reported by the federation, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Lithuania is known for its principled position in support of Ukraine, including the disqualification of Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. However, UEFA did not disqualify Belarus from competitions under its auspices, as it did with Russia.
Therefore, the Lithuanian women’s national team was to play matches against Belarus on 31 May and 4 June. Now these matches have been officially cancelled due to Lithuania’s refusal to play them. In both matches, the Lithuanians will be awarded technical defeats with a score of 0:3, and the federation will be fined 5 thousand euros.
The Lithuanian Football Federation apparently considers UEFA’s decision to be rather lenient, as refusal to play matches can also result in disqualification from the tournament.
“Finally, this issue has been officially resolved, and now we can look forward. We have received the sanctions we could have imagined, and most importantly, our national team is not closed to finishing in the European Championship qualifiers. [We have the last two matches to play, and if we win those, we can also think about finishing second in the group and the possibility of progressing to the next stage. Sanctions and fines are not the main thing. It was important to reiterate our position on the war and the aggressors,”
– said Edgaras Stankevičius, President of the Lithuanian Football Federation.
