The governing body of European football, UEFA, has decided that, due to the ongoing security crisis in Israel, no UEFA competition matches would be played in the country until further notice, a statement published on UEFA's website said Thursday.
The UEFA Emergency Panel announced its decisions on the current security and political situations in Israel, Ukraine and Russia.
Israeli clubs involved in European competitions will be required to propose alternative venues outside of Israel's territory for their home games, the statement said.
Since July 7, Israeli warplanes have pounded the Gaza Strip with the ostensible aim of ending Palestinian rocket fire from the besieged coastal enclave. At least 231 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed so far.
In response, Gaza-based resistance factions have continued firing rockets at Israel, some of which have reached Tel Aviv. Since hostilities began early last week, one Israeli has been killed as a result of rocket fire from Gaza.
Meanwhile, UEFA decided to allow European club competition matches to be played in the Ukrainian cities of Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa, in addition to Kyiv and Lviv.
This means FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and FC Chornomorets Odesa, entering the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League respectively, will be able to play their continental games in their home grounds.
The statement said, upon the requests coming from both Russian and Ukrainian football federations, the emergency panel decided that Ukrainian and Russian teams could not be drawn against each other until further notice due to safety and security problems.
Apart from these decisions, the panel also decided that, as of this season, all yellow cards from the beginning of the group stage in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League would expire on completion of the quarterfinals, so bookings would therefore not be carried forward to the semifinals.
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