How soon will FIFA Decide to Expel Israel?

     

   Issam Khalidi

 

   It has been 16 months since the Palestinian Football Association's proposal was submitted to FIFA Congress in May 2024. It called for Israel to be held accountable for violations of Palestinian sports rights and expelled from FIFA for its actions. During this FIFA congress the Asian Football Confederation was in support of Palestine's proposal of suspending Israel from FIFA, owing to the genocide in Gaza.

 

   As a result of this proposal, FIFA rejected the Palestinian Football Association’s request for an immediate vote on expelling Israel. FIFA rejected this request because an independent legal assessment of the proposal would be needed. The FIFA Council was scheduled to review that assessment in July 2024. However, there have been several postponements, and the FIFA Council meeting was pushed back to October 3, 2024.

 

   A FIFA Disciplinary Committee decided to launch an investigation into the “alleged” discrimination offense raised by the Palestine Football Association in its complaint. To investigate the issue of Israeli football teams “allegedly” based on Palestinian territory participating in Israeli competitions, FIFA’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee was entrusted with the task of producing a report for the FIFA Council on the matter.

 

    There is no doubt that FIFA's conclusion is going to be a formal bureaucratic procedure intends to mislead the public and conceal its complicity in this genocide. FIFA had to come up with a decision that could absorb PFA’s anger, the world’s football community, and football associations. Of course, FIFA will not take this decision voluntarily, but instead as a result of pressures placed on it by the PFA and the international community. It will do this just to take the blame off itself.

 

In May 2024, the FIFA Council reiterated that “football should never become hostage to politics and always remain a vector for peace; a source of hope; a force of good. Uniting people rather than dividing.”

 

  Historically, sports have always been associated with politics. As a matter of fact, sports outside of politics and isolation are rare indeed. Sports and politics overlap in many cases, to the extent that it is difficult to separate them from one another, especially in cases like the Palestinian one.

  We are witnessing today that Israel and FIFA are repeating the statements “Sports have nothing to do with politics” and that “politics should not be allowed in football.” Essentially, the former only seeks to justify its violations and arbitrary practices against Palestinians and their sports, while the latter seeks to justify its clear bias towards Israel, by maintaining a neutral position.

  The problem is not mixing sports with politics, but rather abandoning humanitarian principles to preserve personal interests. As well as boasting about moral values without putting these values into practice. FIFA calls for adherence and respect for the law while at the same time it is corrupt and dishonest.

 

    FIFA had not yet contacted the administrations of the destroyed clubs in Gaza as of today. It has not released any statements condemning the destruction of the sports infrastructure and the killing of Palestinian athletes.

   In an effort to strengthen its relationship with the Trump administration, FIFA established an office in Trump Tower as a way to ingratiate itself with the administration. 

 

  There has been a lot of pressure placed on FIFA lately. In the last few months, a number of international organizations and federations have called for the expulsion of Israel from FIFA and UEFA. As of now, Israel is competing in the qualifying round for the FIFA World Cup, which begins in 2026.

 

  Former Moroccan justice minister Mustapha Ramid recently added his voice to the rising chorus. According to him, FIFA swiftly expelled Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. While the IOF continued to commit genocide and war crimes in Gaza, FIFA treated the Israeli national team normally.

  

   It has become a common occurrence in stadiums for Israeli teams and players to be treated as outcasts. Fans turn their backs during the Israeli national anthem. Games were interrupted by chants and wows against the Israeli teams.

 

At the UEFA Super Cup match in Udine, Italy, a huge banner with the message "Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians" was displayed on the pitch before the match began. In August the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) has announced it will donate profits from its upcoming World Cup qualifier against Israel to emergency relief efforts in Gaza.

 

   The Italian Soccer Coaches' Association is pushing for Israel to be suspended from international competition over the war in Gaza. Ahead of Italy’s crucial World Cup Qualifiers against Israel in the next two months, the AIAC says "Israel must stop. Soccer must also take action." The AIAC has written a formal letter to the Italian soccer federation, to be forwarded to European and world soccer’s governing bodies, calling for Israel to be suspended.

 

  The Italian coach Gennaro Gattuso breaks his silence in a courageous moment that upholds the ideals of sports and the spirit of the Olympics. During his speech, he described with great emotion his deep shame and anguish at facing the team of Israeli footballers:

 

“In this case, we are dealing with a team that represents an entity that is carrying out a brutal genocide against an innocent population. It is a position that brings sports back to its core principle: that humanity must always come before competition in everything it does. The purpose of sports is to promote peace, not to legitimize war crimes or racism, after all, sports are supposed to be a bridge for peace.”   

 According to an Israeli channel, in response to the Italian stance against Israel, the following statements have been made:

 

“In the future, we will not accept playing with Italy, and if we are placed in the same group, we will withdraw immediately. Our dignity is not negotiable and is not measured by match points. What happened on the field was not just a sporting dispute; it was unacceptable behavior that violates honor, and no self-respecting federation would accept it. The whole world is against us, and no one meets us without insults and malicious language. This is what causes our players to lose focus and collapse in matches." 

   In the end, Israel is the one who is responsible for the humiliation. There is growing outrage and hatred worldwide due to its genocide in Gaza and brutal oppression in the West Bank.

  “The controversy surrounding Israel’s participation highlights the tension between sports and politics. FIFA has stated that athletes should not face punishment for events beyond their control. But this stand reeks of hypocrisy and double standards because the Russian team has been banned for the nation’s war against Ukraine,” wrote Abhijit Sen Gupta in the Siasat Daily. 

   Over the last few decades, Arab nations have been criticized by Western countries for their inability to respect their own constitutions. There has always been criticism of their violations of human rights, including women's rights. However, the events in Gaza indicate that, when it comes to Israel, the West's principles about humanity and human rights including women’s rights remain frozen without being applied. As a result of the events in Palestine and in particular the genocide in Gaza, hidden truths have been exposed, and many have become aware of the falsity of Western claims about democracy and human rights.