Govt.: Visas for Russian, Belarus club footballers in line with international practice

the granting of visas to Russian and Belarusian footballers from the Kazakh club FC Tobol for a game against Viktoria Plzeň on Thursday comes in response to similar decisions by other countries, Czech ministers said on Wednesday.

What’s more, they said, the players are not representing their countries in the match, which is a playoff for promotion to the European Conference League.

Minister for Regional Development Ivan Bartoš told reporters that a ban on appearances by athletes from Russia and Belarus in Czechia was a sanction on those states and was not intended to harm this country.