European Football Championship in Germany: Faeser wants to exclude Belarus from the European Championship

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Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser at a party conference of the Hesse-SPD in the stadium in Marburg.

Photo: Andreas Arnold / dpa

The Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser (SPD), who is responsible for sports, is calling for Belarus to be excluded from qualifying for the 2024 European Football Championship in Germany.

Unlike the world handball association, Uefa has so far only excluded the Russian Federation from participating in tournaments.

In a letter to the President of the Football Association, Aleksander Čeferin, Faeser now demands, according to SPIEGEL information, that “not only Russia, which is waging a war of aggression that violates international law, but also Belarus, as a key supporter of the Russian leadership, should be excluded from all international football games and tournaments”.

After all, the EM motto is »United by Football«, according to the Minister of the Interior.

This must be accompanied by “the suspension of Russian and Belarusian officials from the influential bodies of international sports associations”.

Football must "live up to its responsible role and show a united stance against this form of human rights abuse," writes Faeser.

"All those responsible must be deprived of every opportunity to participate in sport, exert influence or represent themselves in any other way".

The Federal Minister of the Interior had already made her position clear to the Slovenian Uefa boss Čeferin at a meeting in early August.

Now time is of the essence: on October 9, the draw for the qualification for the European Football Championship will take place in Frankfurt am Main.