Köln call for ban on Belarusian teams in Conference League
Upcoming 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League participants 1. FC Köln announced on Thursday that they had petitioned confederation President Alexander Aleksander Ceferin for the expulsion of Belarusian teams from the upcoming competition.
Germany's cathedral city club announced on Thursday that they wished to take a stand not only against the Russian War of Aggression in Eastern Ukraine, but also the despotic regime of Vladimir-Putin-ally Alexander Lukashenko in Belarus. FC Köln released a statement on Thursday calling for the expulsion of four Belarusian teams--BATE Borisov, FK Gomel, Shakhter Soligorsk, and Dinamo Minsk--from the upcoming 2022/23 UEFA Europa Conference League.
"FC Köln is committed to, among other things, liberality, diversity and peaceful coexistence," a letter penned by club management dated July 19th reader, "It is such that the board and management condemn in the strongest terms the proximity of the government of Belarus to Russia. The support of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine by Belarus violates not only the values and standards of 1. FC Köln, but those of the entire sport."
In a statement accompanying the release of the letter, the club called upon all of its members to share the petition on social media platforms as a means of lending their support to the initiative. The timing of the petition coincides with recent recommendations from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Court for the Arbitration of Sport (CAS) that Belarus can be excluded from competitions in the same way that Russia was following the outbreak of war.
Köln qualified for the playoff round of the second edition of the third-tier pan-European competition via a seventh place finish in the 2021/22 Bundesliga standings. The German club will learn their opponents in this round after a draw scheduled to be held on August 2nd.
#StandWithUkraine Mit Blick auf die Unterstützung Russlands durch die belarussische Regierung beim Angriffskrieg gegen die #Ukraine fordert der #effzeh von der #UEFA den Ausschluss der belarussischen Teams aus der UEFA Europa Conference League. 👇 https://t.co/d3WBkaZNuc
— 1. FC Köln (@fckoeln) July 21, 2022