April 9 – Sepp Blatter has given a strong indication that he will oppose a Palestinian bid to throw Israel out of FIFA. At this stage it appears Blatter is still hopeful of finding a mediated solution, despite the frustration of the Palestinians and the intransigence of the Israelis.
Blatter was due to have met Palestinian Football Association (PFA) chief Jibril Rajoub in Cairo yesterday to discuss PFA calls for Israel to be suspended, at the forthcoming FIFA Congress, for its continuing intransigence in the occupied territories as regards freedom of movement for Palestinian players and officials.
No details have yet emerged of that meeting except for a brief FIFA statement which read: “The FIFA president recalled that his objective is to find solutions for the benefit of football development in Palestine and that football should connect, not divide.”
But when asked by AFP on the eve of the meeting with Rajoub to comment on the PFA request, the FIFA president said that “such a situation shall not occur at the FIFA congress because suspension of a federation for any reason is always something which harms the whole organisation.”
In its draft resolution asking Israel to be barred, the PFA protested at the creation of “five clubs in settlements on land occupied since 1967, clubs participating in Israeli national championships in violation of international law.”
The PFA last called for Israel’s suspension in November after Israeli forces raided its headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
In attempting to defuse the situation, Blatter is again trying to act as mediator and is making sure both sides are heard before next month’s FIFA Congress.
In its statement, FIFA revealed that Blatter would be meeting the Israelis at FIFA headquarters “later this month” though it remains to be seen if anything can be achieved since Israeli football authorities are invariably dictated to by their own security forces monitoring who goes in and out of the occupied territories.
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