There is a lot of political tension in football right now. Reports say that UEFA, the governing body for European football, is getting ready to vote on whether or not to suspend Israel from international events, including the qualifying stages for next year’s FIFA World Cup.
The argument is about what many UEFA members see as an inconsistent response from the governing bodies of world football when it comes to sanctions related to conflict. For example, Russia’s national and club teams were banned from playing after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but Israel is still allowed to play even though the humanitarian toll in Gaza is huge and a recent UN commission of inquiry found that Israel is committing genocide.
UEFA Heads Towards a Vote: Meeting of the Executive Committee Reports say that UEFA is getting ready for an emergency meeting of its 20-member Executive Committee to vote on putting the Israeli Football Association (IFA) on hold. There is no official timetable yet, but the vote might happen as soon as next week, before the international break starts on October 6.
Majority in Favor: Sources say that a huge majority of the members of the UEFA executive committee are in favor of keeping Israeli teams from playing in international competitions.
What Would Happen if There Was a Ban: A ban from UEFA would be big because UEFA runs the World Cup qualifying tournaments in Europe. If Israel were not allowed to compete in these events, it would not be able to qualify for the World Cup next year.
FIFA and Israel’s lobbying under political pressure
The possible UEFA ruling has made things harder for FIFA, the world governing body.
FIFA’s Problem: FIFA president Gianni Infantino is in a tough spot politically because he is said to have a close relationship with US President Donald Trump. The US has already said it will get involved as it is co-hosting the World Cup.
A representative for the US State Department said, “We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.”
Israel’s Efforts: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other important people, like Moshe Zuares, the head of the Israel Football Association and a member of the UEFA executive committee, have reportedly contacted important people in the football world and governments to try to stop any action.
The Turkish Football Federation recently became the first UEFA member to publicly call for Israel to be banned from football events. They did this because they thought the situation in Gaza was “inhumane and unacceptable.”
The Example of Russia and Calls for Consistency
A big problem with UEFA is that some countries seem to get varying levels of punishment:
Russia’s Ban: After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, both UEFA and FIFA quickly banned all Russian national and club teams from international events.
Israel’s Status: On the other hand, Israeli football clubs and the national team have been able to freely compete in UEFA and FIFA tournaments even though military actions are still going on and international criticism is growing, with UN experts calling for Israel to be suspended over accusations of genocide in Gaza.
In the next two weeks, Israel’s men’s national team will play away games against Norway and Italy as part of their World Cup qualification campaign. A ban would stop them from taking part right now.