FIFA said its disciplinary committee will “examine the allegations of discrimination” raised by Palestine in May.
FIFA has once again postponed its decision on the Palestinian call to ban football in Israel amid the ongoing war against Gaza.
Following a meeting on Thursday at its headquarters in Zurich, the International Federation of Association Football – FIFA, football’s world governing body – said its disciplinary committee would examine allegations of discrimination raised by the Palestinian Football Federation. (PFA).
“The FIFA Disciplinary Committee will be mandated to open an investigation into the alleged offense of discrimination raised by the Palestinian Football Federation,” FIFA said in a statement.
“The FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee will be tasked with investigating – and subsequently advising the FIFA Council on – the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based on the territory of Palestine.”
FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the council had carried out “due diligence” on the matter and followed the advice of independent experts.
In May, the PFA presented arguments accusing the Israel Football Federation (IFA) of violating FIFA statutes with its war on Gaza and the inclusion of teams located in illegal settlements on Palestinian territory in its national league .
The PFA wanted FIFA to adopt “appropriate sanctions” against Israel’s national team and club teams, including an international ban.
The IFA called the demand a “cynical political move”.
FIFA referred the matter to independent legal advisers who carried out an assessment and drafted a response.
This is not the first time that FIFA has postponed its decision. He had promised to address the issue at a special meeting of his council in July, but postponed the decision until his last council on August 31. It then postponed its decision until its October meeting.
Katarina Pijetlovic, head of the PFA’s legal department, described FIFA’s decision as “purely political”.
“FIFA has allowed the Israeli Federation to continue to use the Palestinian territory (occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem) as its own territory, and to use football under its aegis as an instrument of colonial expansion,” he said. she writes in an article on X.
“Are we going to wait another two years, like in 2015-2017, for the committee to suggest the obvious and have its suggestion rejected again?
FIFA allowed the Israeli Federation to continue to use the Palestinian territory (West Bank and East) as its own territory and to use football under its aegis as an instrument of colonial expansion. FIFA contributes to human rights violations and facilitates illegal occupation and colonialism pic.twitter.com/ESCyYdBGqp
-Kat (@katpijetlovic) October 3, 2024
Israeli attacks in Gaza since last October have killed more than 41,700 people and injured more than 96,000, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The war also had an impact on football, the most popular sport in Palestine.
As of August, at least 410 athletes, sports officials or coaches had been killed in the war, according to the PFA. Among them, 297 were footballers, including 84 children.
The war also forced the Palestinian men’s football team to play their matches away.
“The Palestinian people know that this team is acting as a form of resistance and sending a message to the world,” Abubaker Abed, a Gaza-based football writer, told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“Football is a stage from which a message can reach millions of people,” he said, adding that Palestinians feel abandoned by the world as Israel continues to destroy sports facilities in the Strip. from Gaza.
“More than 50 sports facilities have been reduced to rubble in Gaza, including nine out of ten stadiums,” Abed said. “Almost all clubs were destroyed in this war, while a stadium in Deir el-Balah was transformed into a refuge for thousands of displaced people. »
