Ukraine national beach soccer team.
Beach Soccer Federation of Ukraine
According to the online media Suspilne.
All of this stems from the Ministry of Youth and Sports order: the Ukrainian national beach soccer team should boycott the Euroleague’s third-place match against Belarus, which, at the tournament, competes under its own flag.
In 2023, the Ukrainian team was forced to withdraw from the competition due to the current order, which prohibits participation of the Russian and Belarusian national teams under national symbols. Subsequently, Ukraine withdrew from the 2024 World Championship, where Belarusians were also selected.
In 2025, the Ukrainian national team took part in the final stage of the Euroleague despite the presence of Belarus – both teams were placed in different groups. Following the group stage, the Ukrainians were close to meeting the Belarusians in the semifinals: Belarus’s loss in the first-place match meant Ukraine faced Italy.
The semifinal match against Italy ended in a 1-4 defeat. Consequently, the blue-and-yellow team advanced to the third-place match against Belarus, which in the other semifinal had fallen to Spain.
Prospects and Ukraine’s Position
Currently, the final decision on participating in the match against Belarus depends on the interpretation of the Ministry of Youth and Sports order, which significantly affects the possibility of competing under national symbols.
In July 2025, Ukraine’s Minister of Youth and Sports Matviy Bidnyi expressed the possibility of canceling the order that bans participation of teams from Russia and Belarus. However, no official amendment or new decision has been issued since then, and other national teams had already announced a boycott against Belarus: Estonia withdrew from participation last year, and Latvia did not participate in a single match in July 2025.
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