By Andrew Warshaw
May 11 – Sepp Blatter will try one last time to forge a compromise to prevent Palestine’s call for Israel to be suspended from FIFA from being put to the vote at the FIFA Congress on May 29.
The FIFA president, who has been trying to find a solution for two years, held urgent peace talks with the leaders of both federations, Palestine’s Jibril Rajoub and Israel’s Ofer Eini, at FIFA headquarters on Sunday and will travel to the Middle East in the next few days to try and stop the issue taking centre stage on presidential election day.
A statement from FIFA following Sunday’s meeting said that “both member associations agreed to pursue the dialogue” and that Blatter “will travel to Israel and Palestine to meet their respective FA presidents and heads of state ahead of FIFA Congress.”
The Palestinian request is officially on the agenda at the Congress and Blatter, who has publicly stated he is against the idea of suspending Israel, wants to do everything he can to remove the item – or at least modify it. Israel says it has no control over its government’s security policy in the area which is why Blatter is also to meet the respective heads of state.
Eini has already tried to pre-empt any vote by writing to all of FIFA’s 209 members urging them to reject the Palestinian proposal.
After the latest meeting he was quoted as saying: “I am a little more optimistic today but it does not change anything in our preparation for the possibility of a vote in Congress … Our argument remains clear, that this is an attempt to involve politics and sports and there is no place for such a move. It is clear to me that most FIFA members understand very well the intention behind this Palestinian move and the destructive impact it would have.”
But the Palestinians appear to be holding firm.
Rajoub made it clear at the recent Asian Football Confederation congress in Bahrain that the resolution stands – unless Israel makes key changes on the ground in terms of freedom of movement for players and Palestine-bound equipment in the West Bank and Gaza.
And after yesterday’s tri-partite talks, the Palestinian Football Association president was still unmoved.
“It is clear that the Israeli Soccer Association is not willing to recognise the PFA as a federation with equal rights and obligations, just as they continue to violate their commitments made before FIFA,” Rajoub said in a statement.
“We are therefore determined to continue our path to suspend the Israeli Soccer Association during the next FIFA Congress.”
Rajoub’s proposal would need a three-quarters majority to pass and Blatter’s task in the coming days will be to secure some kind of diplomatic agreement that prevents either side from losing face.
Israel was originally an AFC member but was expelled in the 1970s following pressure from Arab and Muslim members and was in the footballing wilderness until being admitted to UEFA in 1994.
Blatter would ideally like to go to Congress with some kind of progress on the Middle East, especially given the fact he is due to address delegates on mediation efforts.
But Rajoub, who was persuaded a year ago to drop a similar proposal, wants to see Israeli concessions on the ground for himself before backing down. And that is unlikely to happen with little over two weeks to go before the Congress takes place.
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