Issam Khalidi
As Inside Word Football reported, the FIFA Council, the
organization's top decision-making body, held its penultimate meeting on
Thursday October 2nd, but didn't talk about either Israel's potential ban or
settlement clubs in the West Bank, which were first raised by the Palestinian
FA (PFA) in 2013.
Instead, Infantino and his Council offered a message of
peace. Infantino said: “At FIFA, we are committed to using the power of
football to bring people together in a divided world. Our thoughts are with
those who are suffering in the many conflicts that exist around the world
today, and the most important message that football can convey right now is one
of peace and unity.”
“FIFA cannot solve geopolitical problems, but it can and
must promote football around the world by harnessing its unifying, educational,
cultural and humanitarian values.”
After the meeting, Infantino posed for a photo with PFA
president Jibril Rajoub (pictured left). Reducing the occasion to another photo
op, he wrote on Instagram: “I commend President Rajoub and the PFA for their
resilience at this time and I reiterated to him FIFA’s commitment to using the
power of football to bring people together in a divided world.”
The PFA has repeatedly sought to suspend Israel, including
at last year’s FIFA Congress in Bangkok, Thailand. FIFA president Gianni
Infantino ordered an “independent legal analysis” of Palestine’s complaint,
which was passed to the disciplinary and governance committees last October.
A few questions come to mind here; the first one is why did FIFA
immediately sanction Russia four days after the Ukraine invasion? Secondly,
why did FIFA not condemn, even with a single word, the killing of athletes and
the complete destruction of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip? The
third question would be, if FIFA is truly a democratic institution, why is it
afraid to vote to expel Israel from its organization? As a fourth
question, we are curious to know the secret behind the FIFA president's
sycophantic ties to President Trump, who has warned against expelling Israel
from FIFA and preventing Israel from participating in the 2026 World Cup, and
boasts that he has been the most supportive of Israel as president in the
history of the United States.
Essentially,
what we see here is nothing but hypocrisy, a lack of regard for the principles
firmly underlying this governing body of football - FIFA, and a
departure from all the principles upon which it was founded. It
has become impossible for us to ignore the fact that the hypocrisy, the
procrastination, the delays, the arguments, and excuses offered by FIFA and its
president, have overwhelmed us with anger and disgust. In addition to this, we are dissatisfied with the rhetoric that the FIFA
president used in an attempt to appeal to the world, and the media, regarding
his "sympathies" to those who suffer as a result of the many conflicts that exist
around the world today. His speech does not make a single mention of Gaza or
genocide.
As FIFA's president, Infantino believes that
his existence is linked to flattery and currying favor with
American president
Donald Trump. Not
only is the fault placed on him, but it is also placed on the FIFA Council,
which has no concern for anything other than its own self-interest and
subordinating itself to Infantino's whims in any way it can. In
addition to that, it blamed FIFA's Arab members as well as other members for
not exerting enough pressure on FIFA's president in order to remove Israel from
the organization as well. I find it strange that Infantino seems to
have adopted the same approach to power that Trump has adapted to his presidency.
This includes issuing reports that contradict democratic
principles and finding excuses
devoid of honor and integrity.
How can football convey a message of peace
and unity in a world where the entire sports infrastructure has been destroyed
and hundreds of athletes and players have been killed, most recently Suleiman
al-Obeid, the “Pele of Palestine”? It
is unclear what kind of peace Infantino is referring to when his words
contradict the position he put forward in his previous statements.
It
has been previously stated by him that football is a means of combating racial
discrimination, violence, and riots, as well as a means of establishing human
rights, equality, and justice in the world.
In an ironic turn of events, FIFA has
also paid attention to the workers' conditions and to the state of Qatar's
sports facilities ahead of the 2022 World Cup. As a result, it
criticized the United States decision in 2017 to impose a travel ban on several
Muslim-majority countries, and expressed "humanitarian sympathy"
towards Ukraine, its "civilized", blue-eyed neighbor.
In many ways, FIFA's stance resembles
that of the West in general which calls for justice and democracy but ignores
them in its dealings with Israel.
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