By Andrew Warshaw in Sao Paulo
June 12 – FIFA president Sepp Blatter’s attempts to forge a lasting agreement between Palestine and Israel, one of his most pressing priorities, had to be put on the backburner today when there was insufficient goodwill to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that would have sent out a strong message that progress had been made.
Blatter had spent weeks mediating between the two sides but in the buildup to the FIFA Congress here, it became increasingly clear that no accord would be reached when the Palestinians issued a series of angry statements condemning what they perceived as a continuation of Israeli restrictions on freedon of movement in the occupsied territories.
On the plus side, a Palestinian threat to demand the suspension of Israel from FIFA was prevented but only after a last-ditch diplomatic initative involving the presidents of both Asia and UEFA, Sheikh Ahmed and Michel Platini and Asia’s Fifa vice-president Prince Ali.
Having tried all manner of mediation to try and bring the two sides together, most recently establishing a liaison system established last autumn by a task force led by Blatter, it would appear FIFA have run out of ideas. But Blatter refused to be beaten, announcing than an independent monitor will now be set up charged with reporting back to the FIFA executive committee in December.
“I took up this matter last year with a lot of optimism and I am still optimistic,” Blatter told Congress. “I would have been happy to announce that we going to sign… but the problem between Palestine and Israel is a problem of more than 50 years so how could anyone expect that a FIFA delegation could solve this problem in one year?”
Blatter has met political leaders from both countries several times but still couldn’t bring about a breakthrough. “But we have established a mechanism facilitating the movement of players and officials that has shown some positive results; not enough positives, especially on the side of Palestine but some progress has been made,” he said.
In a pointed remark at the Israeli authorities, he added: “The first steps have been done and we shall try to strengthen the association between the two national associations. Now we need the full support of the Israeli government in order to facilitate this move and this co-operation is crucial in this matter.”
Insisting that “there is no question of sanctions” Blatter then asked Congress to “call on Israeli government to fully support the implementation of this agreement and especially to facilitate the human relations when entering the territory of Palestine for national or international matches for goods and for persons.”
Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine Football Association and the man who has relentlessly denounced Israel’s tactics, reluctantly accepted the face-saving compromise but only if there is demonstrable progress by this time next year.
“Two clear messages should come out of this Congress: one to those who caused such suffering that it’s time to stop and one to those who are suffering: Don’t lose hope, the big family of FIFA is with you,” he said.
“I hope I can come here next year and say: ‘Let bygones be bygones.’ Now the ball is in the court of others.”
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