By Issam Khalidi – The Palestine Chronical
Despite compelling evidence of violations against Palestinian sports, FIFA’s prolonged inaction and delayed decisions suggest a reluctance to hold Israel accountable.
A Palestinian Football Association proposal was submitted to the 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.
As a result of this proposal, FIFA rejected the Palestinian Football Association’s request for an immediate vote on expelling Israel, on the grounds that an independent legal assessment of the proposal would have to take place. The FIFA Council was to review that assessment in July 2024.
However, there have been several postponements, and the FIFA Council meeting was eventually 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.
However, to this day, FIFA has not released a report on this issue and has not issued a statement. A year later, and just a month away from FIFA’s Congress in Paraguay, still no ruling has been made.
Inside World Football reported that on the eve of the UEFA Congress in Belgrade, Serbia, the PFA wrote to UEFA President Alexander Ceferin and General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis to draw attention to the longstanding problem of Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank, which is not part of Israel according to various UNSC resolutions, the International Court of Justice, and international law.
The letter reads:
“It is not just that these territories do not belong to the country of Israel in international law – they also do not belong to Israel FA under European or global football regulations. Israel FA never received an authorization from UEFA, Palestine FA, AFC and FIFA, all of which are required under Art 65 of the FIFA Statutes to incorporate clubs located on the Palestinian territory into Israeli leagues.”
This note follows an earlier letter to FIFA. The PFA wants the FIFA Congress to compel the organization’s Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) to conclude their investigation into settlement clubs so that FIFA can move toward a decision. The world governing body will stage their annual congress in Asunción, Paraguay, in May.
In April of this year, the Asian Football Confederation called on FIFA to speed up its ruling on Palestine’s Israeli complaint, filed a year ago. The PFA’s complaint covers the IFA’s support for military action in Gaza and the West Bank, the inclusion of six clubs from illegally built settlements on West Bank land in local competitions, and the systematic targeting of Palestinians, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 582 athletes, including 270 football players. More than 286 sports facilities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have also been destroyed.
As we have become accustomed to the West’s attitude toward the genocide in Gaza, this procrastination by FIFA does not come as a surprise to us at all. This can be seen as nothing more than a manifestation of double standards, hypocrisy, unconditional support for Israel, and a reward for its genocidal war.
It is ironic, to say the least, and a direct result of FIFA’s double standards. In addition, by staying silent about the genocide and taking a neutral stance, FIFA is effectively complicit in the crime. It was expected that FIFA would take a final decision directly when the Palestinian Football Association requested a vote to expel Israel from FIFA in May 2024. In any case, this should not have been delayed for more than 2–3 months after the FIFA Congress—without any postponement, excuses, or procrastination.
FIFA does not appear to intend to take a harsh stance regarding Israel’s expulsion, nor does it seem willing to take a firm position on the six settlement clubs participating in the Israeli league.
This is especially true considering that FIFA President Gianni Infantino has shown affection for Trump in recent months—Trump, who constantly brags that there has never been a president of the United States who has been as good to Israel as he has. Obviously, FIFA’s rapprochement with the Trump administration is intended to curry favor with the administration and prevent exposure of FIFA’s corruption in the future.
In an article published by FairSquare, it was stated that Infantino was swept to power in the aftermath of a series of corruption scandals that finally removed Sepp Blatter from the FIFA presidency after 17 years.
“We will restore the image of FIFA and the respect of FIFA. And everyone in the world will applaud us,” Infantino told FIFA delegates in 2016 upon assuming the presidency.
The truth is, he hasn’t changed a thing for the better, and the ease with which the world’s strongmen have drawn him into their sphere of influence is transforming FIFA from simply a corrupt organization into a profoundly dangerous one.
It is shameful and unfortunate that there has not been any contact between FIFA and the administrations of the destroyed clubs in Gaza. FIFA has not released any statements condemning the destruction of the sports infrastructure or the killing of Palestinian athletes as a result of the genocide.
The silence of FIFA may be related to a phenomenon that Ilan Pappé described in a recent article he wrote for Palestine Chronicle, which he referred to as moral panic:
“Moral panic is a situation in which a person is afraid of adhering to his or her own moral convictions because this would demand some courage that might have consequences. We are not always tested in situations that require courage, or at least integrity. When it does happen, it is in situations where morality is not an abstract idea but a call for action.”
What is occurring within FIFA, the West, and across much of the world is in fact a phenomenon of distorted moral behavior—in other words, the death of international moral standards. It is time for the international community to recognize this reality.
The Palestinian cause has become one of the most important compass points for determining the moral status of countries and institutions around the globe. As a result of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, any remaining doubt that the West is utterly racist and utterly hypocritical has been removed—if there was ever any doubt to begin with.
If FIFA were truly concerned and sincere about football worldwide—if it truly wanted football to serve humanity and if it truly respected and obeyed its statutes—it would have at least issued a statement condemning the destruction of sports infrastructure and the killing machine Israel has unleashed upon the Palestinian people.
FIFA does not seem to respect the rules and regulations it has enshrined in its own constitution. Rather than bragging about democracy, equality, and human rights, FIFA needs to enact them in reality, not just in rhetoric.
The genocide in Gaza has been a disaster on many levels: infrastructure, the economic system, health, education, the social fabric, and the athletic system. It is also about the hopes, ambitions, and aspirations of Palestinians. In essence, it is a deliberate attempt to erase the past, the present, and the future of an entire people.
Many athletes, including professional players, are desperate about their futures. Their primary concern is to stay alive and secure food and water for themselves and their families. Over the past year and a half, they have been displaced multiple times in the Gaza Strip.
According to 27-year-old Ghassan Abu Odeh, a football player for the Ittihad Al-Shuja’iyya Club in Gaza City, Ghassan stated the following in an interview with Nelly Al-Masri:
“I never imagined digging a grave to bury my friend. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through in my life. When we played at my family’s club in Beit Hanoun, he was always there like my shadow. We had some great times together. We were always together, however, now he is departed forever.”
Saeb Jundiya, a member of the selection department of the Palestinian Football Association for the southern governorates, who supervises the age groups of the Olympic, youth, and junior teams under the supervision of the Olympic, youth, and junior coaches, said:
“I left behind some of my most precious memories, the most beautiful days of my life, and the warm memories I held dear, as well as my medals, my club and Palestinian national team shirts, all my belongings, and even my identification cards. Unfortunately, I was not able to take them with me. In the area where I lived, the occupation destroyed everything that was left. Then it was impossible to return.”
The Palestinian professional football player Suleiman Al-Abeed stands on the ruins, contemplating his longing for the past, as he says:
“I have no memories left. I hoped to get back home within days. It was with great sadness that I had to leave my personal belongings, my Palestinian national team jerseys that I had worn for ten years, my club jerseys that I played for, the Khadamat Al-Shati’ Club—the mother club—as well as the transfer to the Gaza Sports Club and my professional work at the Al-Am’ari Club in Ramallah, the West Bank, that I had been involved in for the past five years. Along with medals, cups, and individual awards, as well as sportswear. This consisted of 75 sports sets, and the computer which contains all of my goals and my sports career. Now I’m lost on the Internet looking for photos of myself to keep.”
“I never imagined that my feet, with which I kicked the ball on grassy fields and scored goals, would walk on a bridge of human flesh that died in war raids. The occupation made a bridge out of the martyrs’ flesh and organs, and covered it with sand. When my family and I walked, it felt like a Hollywood horror movie.” A sarcastic smile covered his features as he said: “I am still alive.”