Pressure is growing on FIFA to suspend Israel ahead of the extraordinary Council meeting

July 18 – On the eve of a planned extraordinary FIFA Council meeting to decide the fate of Israel’s immediate future in international football, human rights and advocacy groups have called on world football’s governing body to ban the country from international football.

At the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand in May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for the Israel Football Association (IFA) to be excluded from football operations because of the Gaza war.

The FIFA executive refused to put the proposal to a vote. FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the decision was within the competence of the FIFA Council and not the entire FIFA membership. Instead, he commissioned a panel of “independent” experts to carry out a “legal assessment”.

Both the PFA and the IFA have submitted their statements to the panel, but human rights groups are increasing pressure on FIFA to take action against Israel.

Earlier this week, FairSquare filed a report with FIFA arguing that there are “multiple grounds to suspend or exclude the IFA,” including “the holding of matches in occupied Palestinian territory, severe and systematic racial discrimination, political interference and the killing of Palestinian players by Israel, as well as the systematic destruction of PFA facilities – most of which predates Israel’s attacks on Gaza, since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.”

Hamas’s terrorist attacks on October 7 killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli sources, and Hamas took more than 250 hostages. However, since then, Israel has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health authorities.

FairSquare argued that FIFA had to act in accordance with Article 72.1, Article 4.1, Article 14.1(i) and Article 15(c) as well as Article 2.1 of the FIFA Statutes.

The organisation’s co-director, Nick McGeehan, warned against a political decision by FIFA’s leadership.

“It is of course the job of FIFA’s appointed legal experts to examine all the evidence against the IFA and in the interests of football it is imperative that they do so. However, there is ample evidence to suggest that FIFA could only be prevented from suspending or expelling the Israel Football Association if its top leadership fails to enforce its statutes,” McGeehan said.

Ekō – a social justice nonprofit that describes itself as “a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations” – also called for action from FIFA. It commissioned South African lawyer Max du Plessis and KwaZulu-Natal lawyer Sarah Pudifin-Jones to co-author its analysis.

“There is no doubt that Israel’s conduct in Palestine has undermined and continues to undermine FIFA’s objectives,” Eko’s report said.

“Israel has violated the internationally recognized human rights of Palestinians, in contravention of Article 3. It has discriminated and continues to discriminate against Palestinians on the basis of race, national origin and birth, in direct violation of Article 4(1).

“Its conduct undermines the humanitarian objectives set out in Article 5.1(b). Israel’s conduct requires reprimand, in line with the position FIFA has taken with regard to similarly blatant violations of its objectives and internationally recognized human rights.”

FIFA was asked for comment but had not responded by the time of going to press.

Contact the author of this story at moc.l1721304767labto1721304767bydlr1721304767guilty1721304767sni@ich1721304767Thanks.1721304767ardni1721304767mas1721304767