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UEFA to prevent Ukrainian, Belarusian teams from being drawn against each other

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Teams from Belarus and Ukraine will be prevented from being drawn against each other in any UEFA competition going forward, the Executive Committee of European soccer’s governing body said on Friday.

The move comes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine for which Belarus has been a key staging area. Teams from Russia and Ukraine were already prevented from being drawn against each other well before the conflict began earlier this year.

In March, UEFA had said Belarusian clubs and the national team will have to play all their home matches in UEFA competitions at neutral venues with no spectators allowed.

“Today’s further decision is made to ensure the smooth running of UEFA competitions as the safety and security of the teams, officials and other participants may not be fully guaranteed due to the existence of a military conflict,” UEFA said.

“The UEFA Executive Committee will remain on standby to convene further meetings to reassess the legal and factual situation as it evolves and adopt further decisions as necessary.”

UEFA also approved special rules for the July 6-31 women’s European Championship in England that allows teams to name unlimited replacements in case of serious injury or illness but only before the first match.

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The rule change allows teams to replace players who test positive for COVID-19 but once a player is replaced, they cannot be re-admitted to the list.

-Reuters

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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