Sports lawyer and lawyer Ilya Skoropashkin commented on an extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers on depriving federations of the status of national federations in the event that Ukrainians participate in competitions with Russians and Belarusians.
Ilya Skoropashkin— Zhan Belenyuk published a document according to which the Cabinet of Ministers obliges the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine to consider the possibility of depriving sports federations of the status of national ones if their athletes participate with Belarusian and Russian athletes in the same international competitions. Does the participation of our teams in the European Football Championship 2024 meet these criteria? The national team of Belarus is participating in it.
- Fits. Moreover, the qualifying matches for Euro 2024 are included in the Unified Calendar Plan of the Ministry of Youth and Sports.
- It turns out that if the Cabinet of Ministers adopts a normative act in the proposed edition, it will actually prohibit the Ukrainian team from continuing to play in the Euro 2024 qualifiers, since there are Belarusians there. Otherwise, the UAF may be under the threat of deprivation of the national status?
- Certainly. By the letter of the law, Belarus participates in these competitions, which means that the UAF will have to remove the national team from the selection so as not to lose its status. But now we are in different groups, and it is not known whether face-to-face confrontation is possible. The probability of this is very low. It is also known that on April 4, the UEFA Executive Committee plans to consider the issue of excluding the Belarusian national team from the Euro 2024 selection, which currently occupies the last place in the group. Therefore, I think there will be no consequences.
— And what about the European Cups?
— A very interesting question. This is a club tournament, the UAF cannot influence the decision of clubs regarding participation in it, but it may lose their national status...
- If you take the Olympics, everything can happen there too without a face-to-face meeting, through the overall standings, but it turns out that our athletes still have to shoot ...
- There is still a long time before the Olympics. Surely, by that time there will be a clear position both at the national and international levels. But as for qualifying and qualifying tournaments, and not only in football, the question is still open. The participation of athletes in the selection together with the Russians and Belarusians puts the federation at risk.
- In theory, if it comes to depriving the UAF of the status of a national association - what could be the consequences for it? Should another federation appear in its place?
— The national status for any sports federation is of great importance. According to Art. 20 of the Law of Ukraine "On Physical Culture and Sports", only a federation with a national status can represent a sport in an international federation, organize and hold all-Ukrainian competitions, and also count on budgetary support for a sport. If the authority to represent the UAF in FIFA and UEFA is accepted there without reference to national legislation, then serious questions may arise with the legitimacy of holding PL, PFL and amateur competitions.
- How likely is it to deprive the UAF of the status of a national federation at the legislative level?
- The deprivation of the status of a "national" sports federation is carried out by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in accordance with the Regulations of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine on granting and depriving the status of a national sports federation dated January 18, 2012 No. 22.
At the moment, an exceptional list of cases is provided for depriving a sports federation of the status of a national one. There are three such cases: violation of the terms of the cooperation agreement between the federation and the Ministry of Youth and Sports; identification of false information in documents after granting national status; cancellation of the decision on the recognition of the sport.
As you can see, at present there are no legislative grounds for depriving a sports federation of the status of a national one due to participation in competitions with Belarusians and Russians. To do this, the Cabinet of Ministers needs to amend its Regulations.
Andrey Shevchenko
