Australian soccer player Craig Foster is calling on FIFA to suspend Israel over the attack on Gaza

Former Australia and Crystal Palace player Craig Foster on Friday called on world football’s governing body to suspend Israel ahead of next week’s FIFA Congress over attacks on the Gaza Strip.

“The 74th FIFA Congress will take place next week. There are calls for Israel to be suspended, in line with FIFA’s legal human rights obligations, pending compliance with International Court of Justice (ICJ) measures to prevent genocide. I support you. And call on the football community to do it too,” Foster wrote on X.

FIFA confirmed that the congress will take place in Bangkok on May 17. 211 member associations will come together to vote on key issues, including the host country or countries for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“With over 35,000 people reportedly already killed in Gaza, that’s an entire stadium full of people gone. According to reports, 20,000 women and children and around 100 professional football players were killed in a genocide deemed plausible by the International Court of Justice.”

“This simply means that there are enough signs, including the intention to invoke the duty that we all have, whether governments or individuals, to prevent genocide,” the 55-year-old said in a video on X.

He said there are “600,000 children in Rafah and many of them love football,” but FIFA is silent on the issue and has done nothing to sanction the Israel Football Association since October, despite the country’s attack on Gaza.

“The Palestinian Football Association has called for an urgent hearing next week and twelve associations of the West Asian Football Association are calling for Israel’s immediate suspension until the end of hostilities. “I support these demands along with the release of all hostages and the accountability of all warring parties for crimes,” he said.

Foster added that he had written to Football Federation Australia asking for support and called on the football community in Australia and fans around the world to support him.

“Please write to your association and to FIFA,” he said, pointing out that European soccer’s governing body UEFA and FIFA banned Russia in 2022 over Moscow’s war against Ukraine and South Africa in 1961 over apartheid. Yugoslavia was excluded from EURO 1992 and the 1994 FIFA World Cup because of the Yugoslav Wars.

Foster played 29 international matches and scored nine goals for the Australian national football team. During his stay in England he played for Portsmouth and Crystal Palace. Foster, now a human rights activist, retired in 2003.

Separately, the Palestinian Football Association said on Thursday that at least 265 Palestinian athletes have been killed in Israeli attacks since October.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the federation, told reporters earlier that the victims included “players, administrators and technical staff” and that dozens of athletes lay under the rubble and many were also “held in Israeli prisons.”

Rajoub said the association had submitted a draft resolution to FIFA to hold Israel accountable.

He said Palestine “cannot organize a league or even host FIFA World Cup qualifiers.”

“Israel destroyed all sports facilities in Gaza and turned them into detention centers similar to Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib prisons,” he added.

According to Palestinian information, more than 55 sports facilities were destroyed in Israeli attacks, including 38 in Gaza.

Israel bombed the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a Hamas attack on October 7 that killed fewer than 1,200 people.

Since then, more than 34,900 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and over 78,500 have been injured in Gaza, according to Palestinian health authorities.

Seven months after Israel’s war began, swathes of the Gaza Strip lay in ruins, forcing 85% of the enclave’s population into internal displacement, according to the United Nations, amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. A preliminary decision in January said it was “plausible” that Israel was committing genocide in Gaza and ordered Tel Aviv to stop such acts and take measures to ensure humanitarian assistance was provided to civilians in Gaza .