Belgium’s Euro 2024 qualifier against Sweden will not be restarted or replayed following the terror attack in Brussels that left two visiting supporters dead.
Two Swedes were shot and killed on Boulevard d’Ypres, with a third seriously injured, shortly before the game on Monday night by a 45-year-old of Tunisian descent. He was later shot dead by police.
The match went ahead but, as news of the incidents filtered through, was suspended at half-time with the score level at 1-1 and subsequently abandoned with both teams indicating they did not wish to play the second half.
UEFA said today that scoreline “is confirmed as final”.
In a statement on their website, European football’s governing body explained how it came to its decision.
“The Executive Committee took note that it had proved impossible to play the remaining part of the match on the following day; both the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Swedish Football Association, given the circumstances, explicitly expressed their desire not to play the remaining match time and to consider the result at the half-time interval (1-1) as final.
“The result of this match does not impact the qualification of Group F since Belgium is already mathematically qualified to the UEFA EURO 2024 final tournament (together with Austria) and Sweden is mathematically eliminated; the respective fixtures do not allow any date to be used in the upcoming November international window, when the preliminary group stage of the competition must be concluded, to be followed by the play-off draw and final tournament draw.”
