July 18 – On the eve of a scheduled extraordinary FIFA council meeting to decide the fate of Israel’s immediate future in international football, human rights and pressure groups have called on the world governing body to suspend the country from the international game.
At the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, in May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) demanded that the Israel Football Association (IFA) be suspended from football because of the war in Gaza.
FIFA’s executive refused to allow the proposal to a vote, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino saying the decision was within the remit of the FIFA Council to decide, rather than FIFA’s full membership, and instead commissioned a ‘legal assessment’ by a panel of ‘independent’ experts.
Both the PFA and IFA have filed their submissions to the panel, but human rights groups are stepping up the pressure on FIFA to take action on Israel.
Earlier this week, FairSquare submitted a report to FIFA arguing that it has “multiple grounds to suspend or expel the IFA”, highlighting among others “the holding of matches in occupied Palestinian territory, serious and systematic racial discrimination, political interference, and Israel’s killing of Palestinian players and the systematic destruction of PFA facilities – most of which predate Israel’s attacks in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023.”
The terror attacks by Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7 and Hamas took more than 250 hostages according to Israeli figures, but Israel has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians since, according to Palestinian health authorities.
FairSquare argued that FIFA have to act under article 72.1, article 4.1, article 14.1 (i) and article 15 (c), and article 2.1 of the FIFA Statutes.
The organisation’s co-director Nick McGeehan warned against a political decision from the FIFA leadership.
“It is of course up to the legal experts appointed by FIFA to consider the full range of the evidence against the IFA and in the interests of the game, it is imperative that they do so. However, there is a vast body of evidence to suggest that the only thing that could possibly stop FIFA from suspending or expelling the Israel Football Association is a political decision from its senior leadership not to enforce its statutes,” said McGeehan.
Ekō – a social justice non-profit organisation that describes itself as ‘a community of people from around the world committed to curbing the growing power of corporations’ – also demanded action from FIFA. They enrolled attorney Max du Plessis of South Africa and KwaZulu-Natal lawyer Sarah Pudifin-Jones to co-write their analysis.
“There can be no doubt that Israel’s conduct in Palestine has undermined, and continues to undermine, FIFA’s objectives,” said Eko’s report.
“Israel has violated the internationally recognised human rights of Palestinians, contrary to Article 3. It has discriminated and continues to discriminate against Palestinians on the basis of race, national origin and birth in direct contravention of Article 4(1).
“Its conduct undermines the humanitarian objectives described in Article 5.1(b). Israel’s conduct demands censure, in line with the position adopted by FIFA in relation to similar egregious violations of its objectives and internationally recognised human rights.”
FIFA has been contacted for comment but had not replied by press time.
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