What the Swiss forfeit meant for Ukraine's Nations League standing
A look back at a UEFA appeals ruling reported on 25 November 2020, alongside two other international disputes of the same days.
What did a ruling by UEFA's appeals committee mean for Ukraine's national football team? Looking back at 26 November 2020, the answer was already clear from reports of the previous day: the committee awarded a technical defeat to Ukraine in the 2020–2021 Nations League match against Switzerland, which had been due to take place on 17 November.
The consequence was stated plainly at the time. Because of the forfeit, Ukraine would compete in Division B in the next season. The result was decided by an appeals body rather than on the pitch, and it fixed the team's level for the following campaign.
Other disputes in the same days
The same days brought two international confrontations. On 24 November 2020, Russia said its navy had made a United States destroyer turn back after threatening to ram it, and claimed the ship had crossed its territorial waters in the Peter the Great Gulf by two kilometres. The U.S. navy gave a different account: it said the destroyer had carried out a freedom of navigation operation to challenge a Russian claim to enclose the waters of a bay, a claim it called inconsistent with international law as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention.
On 25 November 2020, the U.S. 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. This followed Russia blocking the UN Security Council from blacklisting the group over alleged abuses in Tarhuna during the 14-month offensive led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
The three items are separate. What links them is that each was settled, or contested, through an outside authority: a sporting appeals body, a maritime-law claim and a sanctions decision taken after a Security Council block.
