Pressure is mounting on international football authorities to exclude the Israeli national team from their tournaments, following the United Nations declaration that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip. But despite protests by fans and players, governing bodies show few signs of taking a stand.
One week a UN inquiry concluded on 16 September that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, another group of experts appointed by the UN published their own statement – calling for Israel to be excluded from international football.
Addressing their statement to Uefa and Fifa – football’s European and international governing bodies, respectively – 30 experts called on them to suspend Israel “as a necessary response to address the ongoing genocide in the occupied Palestinian territory”.
“Sporting bodies must not turn a blind eye to grave human rights violations,” they declared.
Palestinian football targeted
The genocide in Gaza is one in which Palestinian athletes have been deliberately targeted. Over the past two years, the Israeli army has killed some 898 Palestinian athletes – including at least 420 footballers.
Among them were Hani Al-Masdar, assistant coach of the Palestinian national football team; Mohammed Barakat, star striker of the national team; and Suleiman Al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pelé”, who was killed on 6 August while waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.
The death of Al-Obeid caused international outrage. Uefa posted on X: “Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the ‘Palestinian Pelé’. A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times.”
The tribute prompted Liverpool forward and captain of the Egyptian national team Mohamed Salah to respond: “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Israel has also attacked almost 290 sports facilities in two years in the Palestinian enclave and the occupied West Bank.
Opened in 1952 and rebuilt many times following Israeli attacks, Gaza City’s 9,000-seat Yarmouk Stadium became a refuge at the start of the latest conflict.
But in December 2023, the Israeli army entered the stadium and turned it into an interrogation site – or “torture camp”, in the words of Nader Jayousi, deputy secretary of the Palestinian Olympic Committee.
It was subsequently demolished, its ruins becoming a refugee camp for displaced Gazans.
On 5 October this year, the headquarters of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), located in East Jerusalem beside the national team’s Faisal Al-Husseini stadium, were targeted by tear gas and sound grenades fired by the Israeli army.
The PFA said in a statement: “These actions are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic policy of targeting Palestinian sport, in direct contravention of the principles enshrined in the Fifa statutes, the Uefa regulations, and the Olympic Charter, all of which are founded on respect for human dignity, equality, and peace.”
Fans, players and politicians protest
Palestinian rights activists have been calling for Israel to be banned from global football competitions for several decades – and since the start of the 2023 war, despite restrictions, football fans have been displaying banners and flags in support of the Palestinian people in stadiums around the world.
Earlier this month, Spanish football club Athletic Bilbao organised a pre-match ceremony as a show of solidarity with Palestinians at the San Mamés stadium, just before their La Liga match against Real Mallorca.
Eleven Palestinian refugees living in Spain, alongside representatives of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, walked on to the pitch as Athletic fans waved Palestinian flags and gave them a standing ovation.
In September, 48 athletes under the banner Athletes 4 Peace, including French football international Paul Pogba and Moroccan international Hakim Ziyech, signed an open letter denouncing the genocide in Gaza and calling for the exclusion of Israeli teams from competitions organised by Uefa.
Game Over Israel is another movement waging an international campaign, mobilising sports stars and fan groups alongside human rights organisations. On 16 September, their slogan “Soccer federations: boycott Israel” was beamed from a billboard in New York’s Times Square. New York is set to host eight matches in the World Cup next year, including the final.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has also called for Israel to be excluded from tournaments, citing the difference with how Russia has been treated since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “Israel cannot continue to use any international platform to whitewash its image,” he told elected representatives of his Socialist Workers’ Party.
Patxi López, leader of the Socialist group in parliament, said that Spain would be prepared to boycott the 2026 World Cup if Israel qualifies.
The president of the Israel Football Association (IFA), Moshe Zuares, responded in French newspaper Le Parisien, saying: “I heard the Spanish prime minister’s stupid threat. I suppose he made it after consulting the table and realising that we would not qualify for the World Cup.”
On 14 October, several thousand demonstrators gathered in Udine, Italy, to protest the genocide before the kick-off of a qualifier between Italy and Israel – a match that saw the end of Israel’s World Cup hopes with a 3-0 defeat. The country has only qualified for the tournament once – for Mexico 1970, at which it was eliminated in the group stage.
Clubs cautious
Fan protests aside, Turkey’s football federation is the only Uefa member so far to publicly call for Israel to be suspended from international matches. It has described the situation in Gaza as “inhumane and unacceptable”.
If a team withdraws from a match against any side, the boycotters earn an automatic 3-0 defeat. “But if no one is doing this with regard to Israel, it is mainly because they are all afraid of being labelled antisemitic,” notes Romain Molina, an investigative journalist and football specialist.
“Another point to note is that many football club owners have ties to Israel. One of the greatest football agents in history is Israeli, Pini Zahavi. He was the one who brought the Barça team to Israel [for the 2013 “Peace Tour”], and it was a huge diplomatic victory for Israel to see Neymar, Messi and others at the Wailing Wall.”
At the Uefa Super Cup final between Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain on 13 August, a banner reading “Stop killing children. Stop killing civilians” was displayed on the pitch in front of the players as they lined up before kick-off.
However, Uefa’s gesture met with criticism for not going far enough. “To name the crime but not the perpetrator is an act of cowardice,” said Shaista Aziz of Amnesty International.
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Fifa statutes
On 1 October, Amnesty called on Fifa and Uefa to suspend the IFA from their tournaments until it bans at least six clubs based in illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from continuing to play in Israeli leagues.
Article 64.2 of Fifa’s statutes stipulates that “member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval”.
Article 3 is similarly clear: “Fifa is committed to respecting all internationally recognised human rights and shall strive to promote the protection of these rights.”
The PFA filed an official complaint with Fifa in March 2024. It cited Israel’s actions in Gaza as well as the inclusion of clubs from Israeli settlements and the failure of IFA to take action against discrimination and racism.
Fifa has repeatedly postponed a vote on Palestine’s motion to ban Israel from the international stage, saying its experts are still investigating.
Russian precedent
Several countries have previously been suspended by footballing bodies – South Africa during apartheid, Yugoslavia during the Yugoslav wars and most recently, Russia.
Four days after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Uefa and Fifa jointly excluded Russian clubs and the national team from international competitions, a sanction that is still in force.
However, a source told French daily Le Monde: “Russia’s suspension was not a political decision. It was due to the fact that more than 40 federations refused to play against the Russians. The decision was therefore taken to ensure the integrity of the competitions. There is currently no such pressure regarding Israel.”
In Molina’s view: “They said to themselves, ‘this could be dangerous for our own power, so we’ll ban Russia’. That wasn’t the case for Israel. So as long as that doesn’t happen, Israel won’t be suspended. They’re always looking for excuses.”
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Trump and Infantino
At the end of September, according to revelations in British daily The Times, a majority of Uefa committee members were “in favour of suspending” Israel in response to the UN declaration of genocide.
A meeting was scheduled to decide on the matter, but was put on hold due to the presentation of US President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, with Sky News reporting: “There is a belief among leaders in European football now that imposing sporting sanctions on Israel would not be the right move in the middle of peace talks.”
Molina sees it differently. “Trump’s proposal does not absolve Uefa and Fifa from making decisions. In fact, they are using it as an excuse not to decide,” he says. “It’s just a matter of electoral interest. They don’t care about the war.”
The United States, host of the 2026 World Cup alongside Mexico and Canada, “will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup”, a US State Department spokesperson told the New York Times on 25 September – although, officially, governments have no role in the decisions of Fifa or Uefa.
Trump has a close relationship with Fifa boss Gianni Infantino, who was present on 13 October in Sharm el-Sheikh for the signing of the Gaza peace plan – at the US president’s invitation.
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On 2 October, Fifa issued a statement in which Infantino stressed the importance of promoting “peace and unity”, without mentioning Israel or the IFA.
“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,” he said, adding: “Fifa cannot solve geopolitical problems.”
Molina, however, says that Infantino “has politicised a sporting institution like never before”.
“He dreams of winning the Nobel Prize before becoming secretary-general of the United Nations,” jokes Molina. “At the Fifa annual congress a few months ago, he arrived two hours late because he was on tour with Donald Trump.
“As long as Trump is around, Infantino won’t budge an inch.”
This article has been adapted from the original version in French by Anne Bernas.
