European Parliament lawmakers want Belarus excluded from the Euro 2024 football qualifying competition.

More than 100 MEPs, from all major groups, have called on European football’s governing body, UEFA, to kick the Belarus National team out of Euro 2024 qualifiers over Human Rights Abuses committed by the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, according to a letter seen by POLITICO.

“The very fact of participating in the UEFA Championship by the Belarusian national team will then be used by Lukashenko and his propaganda team to prove that he is well received in the international community,” reads the letter, sent Wednesday to UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.

“It would be an offense for the victims of Russian aggression in Ukraine and for all Belarusians who were forced to flee their homeland as well as for those who remained in Belarus and now have to live in fear and terror,” adds the letter.

The Lukashenko regime, which has served as Belarus’ president continuously since 1994, faces EU sanctions for human rights abuses, its violent crackdown on opposition members and for having helped Russia launch its full-scale attack on Ukraine.

Since the beginning of the month, several opposition figures – including human rights defender and Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski and exiled opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya – have been sentenced to prison terms decades for “high treason” and funding opposition protests.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was also instrumental in Moscow’s attack on Ukraine last February, when Russian troops entered Ukraine from Belarus.

Belarus has been sanctioned by UEFA for its role in the war against Ukraine: the country is no longer allowed to host international matches and Belarusian clubs cannot play against Ukrainian teams in European competitions.

But, unlike Russian teams, who have been expelled from all UEFA competitions, Belarusian clubs and national team are still allowed to participate in international competitions.

The Belarusian national team is set to face Switzerland, Israel, Romania, Kosovo and Andorra in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Its first match is against Switzerland on March 25, and will be played in Serbia. Next summer’s final tournament will then take place in Germany.

The letter signed by MPs said the current measures were ‘inadequate’ and ‘failing'[ed] to reflect what the Belarusian authorities are doing in the area of ​​human rights.

EPP Group co-author Polish MEP Tomasz Frankowski, a former professional footballer himself, said it was “always difficult” to stop a national team from competing.

“However, given the real situation in Belarus, the war in Ukraine and the actions of the Lukashenko regime sentencing innocent citizens to years in prison, such an appeal from the European Parliament was unfortunately necessary,” Frankowski said.

Speaking to POLITICO in Brussels last October, opposition leader Tsikhanouskaya also called for the Belarusian national football team to be expelled from all international competitions and criticized current national team players for showing of “loyalty” to the regime.

UEFA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ali Walker contributed reporting.