UEFA together with FIFA have reached an agreement to burn/ suspend 6 nations that are set to take part in the World Cup qualifier.
On Friday morning European nations will discover their World Cup 2026 opponents in a draw taking place in Zurich, Switzerland.
All UEFA nations have been placed into one of five pots depending on their seeding, and there will be a total of 12 qualifying groups drawn.
It is just unfortunate that during the draw on Friday, some nations will be excluded due to their different issues.
If there is political matters or cultural clashes that might put more lives in danger, it is sometimes best for a match to be banned altogether, and this is precisely what UEFA and FIFA have done.
Euro 2024 champions Spain are of course place into pot 1 for Friday’s draw, but will not be eligible to play pot five side Gibraltar due to tensions over who owns the nation.
Armenia and Azerbaijan will also be ineligible to face each other in the World Cup qualifying groups due to political and ethical tensions over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Kosovo, who have been placed in pot four for Friday’s draw, are also banned from being drawn against either pot three’s Bosnia-Herzegovina or pot two team Serbia due a historical conflict over Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Since Kosovo becamed independent, Serbia with some international nationals have refused to recognise Kosovo as their own nation, leading to increased tensions.
This means that Serbia together with Bosnia-Herzegovina will not be drawn against Kosovo on Friday despite the three nations being in different pots.
What shocked most of the people across world, it was when Kosovo players failed to honor their fixture against Romania last month due to chants from rival fans.
Russian Football Union (RFU) has banned from both FIFA and UEFA competitions since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but should they ever be brought back into the international game, they will not be eligible to play either Kosovo, due to their support of Serbia, or Ukraine due to the historic conflict between the two nations.
Here are the full fixtures burned by FIFA and UEFA as well as the reasons:
Spain v Gibraltar – Disputes over who owns Gibraltar
Armenia v Azerbaijan – Ethical and territorial conflict
Kosovo v Serbia – Historical and ethical conflict – Kosovo independence
Kosovo v Bosnia and Herzegovina – Bosnia support of Serbia against Kosovo
Kosovo v Russia – Russia support of Serbia against Kosovo
Russia v Ukraine – Ongoing conflict.
BY LUCKY SEANEGO
