What did two sporting and sanctions rulings of November 2020 mean?
A look back at a UEFA appeals decision on Ukraine's national team and US sanctions on a Libyan militia, both announced on 25 November 2020.
What happened in the days leading up to 27 November 2020 that merited attention beyond the news cycle? Two decisions, both announced on 25 November 2020, stood out.
In football, the UEFA appeals committee awarded Ukraine's national team a technical defeat in its 2020–2021 Nations League match against Switzerland, which had been due to take place on 17 November. As a result, Ukraine was to play in League B in the following season.
In the Libyan peace process, the US Department of the Treasury announced unilateral sanctions on the al-Kaniyat militia, which was linked to the Libyan National Army, and on its leader, Mohamed al-Kani. The move came after Russia blocked the United Nations Security Council from blacklisting the group over alleged human rights abuses in the city of Tarhuna during the 14-month military offensive led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The two rulings belonged to very different worlds, yet each showed an outcome decided by an external body: a sporting appeals panel in one case, and a national treasury acting alone after a multilateral route was closed in the other.
