When the Seimas is considering plans for the direct management of the LFF, the UEFA representative assures that Lithuania will be suspended
“At the meeting, we will ask representatives of FIFA and UEFA together with the LFF to present the statutes and operational changes,” committee chairman Mykolas Majauskas told BNS.
While the Seimas is considering the introduction of direct management in the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), the organization itself promises to adopt changes to the statutes by the end of the year.
“We are thinking (…) that by the end of the year, around the middle, we would call an extraordinary, general conference of the LFF, during which we would make changes to the statutes,” said the general secretary of the federation Edgaras Stankevičius of the Budget and Finance Committee of the Seimas on Wednesday.
To provide a guide to the implementation of the LFF was written by Luca Nicola of the UEFA National Associations Management Office. He also emphasized that if the Seimas adopted the law on the temporary management of the LFF, the national team and the country’s clubs would be suspended from international tournaments.
“What will happen (…) is that the federation will be suspended,” said a UEFA representative.
According to him, all sides are interested in the development and growth of Lithuanian football, but changes must meet international requirements.
Despite the warning from FIFA and UEFA regarding the possible suspension of the national team and clubs, the Seimas approved the projects of direct management of the LFF after submission last week.
The draft stipulates that during the validity period of the law, the functions of the LFF management bodies will be taken over by a temporary administrator appointed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports. The latter should conduct a financial and operational audit of the federation, within three months from the date of entry into force of the law, prepare and approve the temporary statutes of the LFF, prepared on the basis of the statutes of international football organizations.
Submission of projects by Seimas lawyers that it contradicts the Constitution, but against the submitted rejection of the Law and Law and Order Committee.
The project prepared by the members of the Seimas also proposes that the members of the governing bodies of the LFF could be persons convicted of an intentional crime.
After the project was registered in the Seimas, the LFF working group announced that it proposed amending the federation’s statutes. The proposal envisages similar changes initiated by members of the Seimas.
According to the federation, representatives of FIFA and UEFA will not only visit the Seimas, they will also participate in the meeting of the LFF working group.
In recent years, the management of Lithuanian football has been criticized for poor sporting achievements and functional connections with the criminal world.
Currently, Lithuania ranks 142nd according to the FIFA ranking, the worse result was only in 2017, when the country’s men’s national team was 149th.