Football's Governing Body Delays Vote On Palestinian Call To Bar Israel

NEW YORK, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th May, 2024) NEW YORK, May 18 (APP): Football’s world governing body, FIFA , has said it will seek legal advice before convening in July to decide on a Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel from international matches, according to media reports.

On Friday, FIFA President Gianni Infantino made that statement at the organization’s annual congress in Bangkok, Thailand, after the Palestine Football Association (PFA) presented arguments accusing the Israel Football Association (IFA) of violating FIFA statutes with the Israeli war in Gaza and its inclusion of teams located in Palestinian territory in its domestic league.

Responding to the emotionally charged address by Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian football body, FIFA’s president, Gianni Infantino, said the urgency of the situation meant he would convene an extraordinary meeting of FIFA’s top board on July 25.

Before that meeting, he said, FIFA will ask experts to analyze whether Israel’s actions breach the governing body’s regulations. By contrast, in 2022, FIFA acted quickly to bar Russian teams and clubs from competitions after the country’s forces launched an invasion of neighbouring Ukraine.

Rajoub, the PFA president, has for years pursued sanctions against Israel and its teams over a variety of issues, including freedom of movement for Palestinian players and for allowing teams based in territory overseen by the Palestinian football federation to play in Israel’s domestic leagues.

Since Israeli forces invaded Gaza last October, all soccer infrastructure in the territory, including a historic stadium, has been destroyed, Rajoub said.

FIFA cannot afford to remain indifferent to these violations or to the ongoing genocide in Palestine, just as it did not remain indifferent to numerous precedents," Rajoub said.

"How much more must the Palestinian football family suffer for FIFA to act with the same urgency and severity as it did in other cases? Does FIFA consider some wars to be more important than others and some victims to be more significant?"

Rajoub said 193 Palestinian players had been killed, football infrastructure destroyed, its leagues suspended and its national team required to play World Cup qualifiers abroad.

The proposal was sent to FIFA in March and added to the Congress agenda with the support of the Algerian, Jordanian, Syrian and Yemeni federations.

The Asian Football Confederation gave its backing on Thursday for action against Israel.

Om his part, Israel’s football chief, Moshe Zuares, called the Palestinian motion “cynical.”

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