An agreement has been reached for Lithuania and Belarus to play their Futsal World Cup qualifying match in a neutral country, Armenia, the Lithuanian Football Federation said on Tuesday.
The decision was made by UEFA at the request of the Lithuanian federation, the LFF said. The decision means that both home and away matches will be played in Armenia on March 2 and 4.
Lithuania earlier received warnings from the international football organisations that its team would face disciplinary sanctions for refusing to play, LFF Secretary General Edgaras Stankevičius said.
At the same time, recommendations were received from Lithuania’s Ministry of Education, Science and Sport not to invite Russian and Belarusian athletes to Lithuania. However, no legislation has yet been drafted to ban them from playing with the national teams of these countries.
“In the LFF’s opinion, matches against the Russian and Belarusian national teams should not take place, and countries that refuse to play should not be penalised by the international sports institutions. We believe that if the Lithuanian authorities drafted and approved legislation prohibiting this, the national sports federations would have serious legal arguments when dealing with international organisations,” the secretary general was quoted in the statement.
In March, the UEFA Executive Committee decided to exclude Russian national teams from all official tournaments organised by these international organisations. However, it also decided that matches against Belarusian national teams must go ahead.
“We have repeatedly appealed with FIFA and UEFA, as well as with the Lithuanian government, to take legal action and impose a ban on sports ties with Belarus. Such an official legal document is needed to continue discussions with FIFA and UEFA and to prevent the Lithuanian national teams from playing official matches without violating the documents of the international organisations,” Stankevičius said.
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