The Irish FA are now ‘confident’ Northern Ireland’s Nations League match against Belarus will take place at Windsor Park on Friday, November 15.
The Belfast Telegraph revealed in September that the British Government was against Northern Ireland playing Belarus in Belfast due to the despot nation providing support to Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Russia has been banned from UEFA and FIFA competitions because of the war in Ukraine, while UEFA has also sanctioned Belarus, which is currently not allowed to host international matches.
Northern Ireland played their away match against Belarus in Hungary earlier this month.
In recent weeks, there has been uncertainty over whether Belarus players and officials would be granted visas by the UK Government to facilitate the match in Belfast.
However the Irish FA have a released a statement following talks with representatives from Whitehall suggesting the match will go ahead in Belfast as scheduled.
Irish FA Chief Executive Patrick Nelson said: “The issuance of visas to the Belarus senior men’s football team in time to fulfil our scheduled UEFA Nations League fixture next month has been a well publicised matter.
“We have spent a number of weeks working to find a positive resolution to this. After significant consultation with our Government stakeholders, we are now confident that the game can take place at the National Football Stadium at Windsor Park on Friday 15 November.
“We anticipate further updates in the coming period.”
Irish FA officials, as reported by the Belfast Telegraph, were already exploring options in continental Europe just in case the match was moved away from Windsor Park.
Ahead of Northern Ireland’s victory over Bulgaria earlier this month, manager Michael O’Neill said: “We’re not in control of the situation in November, we’ll just address that when it comes.”
.Northern Ireland are due to play Belarus at Windsor Park on November 15, before wrapping up their Nations League campaign with an away clash with Luxembourg on November 18.
Northern Ireland currently top League C Group 3 on seven points, one point ahead of Belarus.