Minister of Sports urged UEFA to allow the Belarusian national team to play at home, like Israel. But Israel is not playing at home yet
Belarusian Minister of Sports and Tourism Sergei Kovalchuk publicly requested UEFA to review the issue regarding the ban for the Belarusian national team to play football matches on home grounds. He suggested, why can Israel, which is in a military conflict, play, but we cannot? However, he demonstrated ignorance or conscious disregard of an important nuance.
Sergei Kovalchuk. Photo: Arife Karakum Anadolu via Getty Images
“I publicly ask UEFA: we are looking at the global situation. All matches are held outside the country. At the same time, the state continues to develop infrastructure. We have many high-level stadiums. We are ready to organize the arrival of teams here.
One of my requests is to allow the national team to hold home matches in Belarus. Does Israel, which is involved in a conflict, really deserve more the right to hold matches at home? Given the changed situation since 2022, we ask to review the decision," Kovalchuk stated.
However, the point is that in October 2023, the Israeli national team's Euro 2024 qualification matches were postponed to other dates and held on neutral grounds due to the situation in the Gaza Strip. Since then, the Israeli national team has been holding home matches in other countries. The same applied to Israeli clubs — in recent years, they have been holding "home" matches on fields in Serbia or Hungary.
Only now is the question of changing this situation being considered. UEFA intends to resume holding international football matches in Israel starting June 2026. A principled decision on this has already been made, and the plan can only be disrupted, as noted, by a "serious deterioration in the security situation".
However, as of today, the intense military conflict in Israel, related to the Gaza Strip, is practically over, and the parties have signed relevant agreements. Therefore, UEFA has no reason to adhere to previous restrictions, even if some escalations in the Gaza Strip sometimes occur.
Meanwhile, the Russian war in Ukraine, for complicity in unleashing which sanctions were imposed on Lukashenka's Belarus, shows no sign of stopping. Accordingly, no matter what Sergei Kovalchuk says, there is no "situation that has changed since 2022" in our region.
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