Andrew Warshaw
May 21 – Sepp Blatter has completed his Middle East “peace mission” and can now only wait nervously to see whether his shuttle diplomacy has had the desired effect of persuading Palestine to drop its formal proposal to have Israel thrown out of FIFA.
The FIFA president will hope he has done enough but the omens don’t look too bright.
After concluding a two-day visit by meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Football Association (PFA) president Jibril Al Rajoub, Blatter talked up the possibility of a solution before next week’s FIFA Congress.
“I had constructive meetings with the Palestine political and football authorities,” said the FIFA President.. “We all agree football should unite not divide. I came on a mission for peace – football should foster peace and leave politics aside. Based on my talks over the last two days, I remain confident, despite the challenging situation, that we should be able to find a solution in the interests of football and all parties involved ahead of the Congress.”
“We discussed how we can tackle the issue of the mobility of Palestinian players and football officials. We will work together with the Israeli authorities on concrete solutions that should aim at the creation of a special football identity card and a tax exemption on football donations for the benefit of football development in the region.
“We’ll promote a regular exchange between the Israeli and Palestinian authorities through a working group with the participation of FIFA that should meet on a monthly basis. As FIFA President, I do not see that a suspension of an association is a solution.”
Having sat down with key Israeli officials before moving on to Palestine, Blatter clearly hopes that the apparent Israeli-agreed measures to ease travel curbs for Palestinian players and foreign visitors will stave off the threat of a suspension vote. He also suggested a peace match between the two parties, an idea already floated but which has yet to come to fruition.
Giving Palestinian players special identity cards and placing officials at crossings between Palestinian areas and those under Israeli control appear to be fresh developments as does the creation of an escort service between Gaza and the West Bank that would allow players to cross between the two territories separated by Israeli territory.
But the issue of five Israeli clubs based in settlements in the West Bank was not addressed. FIFA rules clearly state that teams must be based in a country’s territory.
“I am an optimist,” Blatter told reporters as he sat alongside Rajoub. “We want to bring a solution for now and a solution for the future in order that we don’t need to go to a vote in the congress.”
But whether his renowned persuasive skills can win the day remains highly questionable.
Rajoub, at a press conference after the talks with Blatter, dug his heels in and said there would be no compromise.
“We will keep the proposal on the congress agenda for sincere and open discussions by the other 208 FIFA member associations,” he told reporters. “There will be no compromising on free movement of our athletes and officials.”
Whilst Rajoub is unlikely to get the three-quarters majority he needs to have Israel suspended, the strategy might be that simply having the proposal on the agenda will sufficiently humiliate Israel to stir them into promising specific action in front of the entire FIFA membership.
“I tell you, the FIFA Congress is definitely with us,” he was quoted by the Times of Israel. “There is a consensus there against discrimination and racism. To a young [Palestinian] person, that’s what characterises Israeli society right now.”
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