According to 'Haaretz', Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has urged the president of world soccer's governing body FIFA to remove a Palestinian motion to impose sanctions against Israeli soccer teams.
Citing two unnamed Israeli officials, the newspaper reported that Netanyahu had spoken with FIFA chief Gianni Infantino over the phone this weekend. The FIFA Congress will open in Bahrain on Wednesday.
Netanyahu reportedly also asked the leaders of several countries to urge the heads of their national soccer associations to strike the issue off the Congress' agenda.
One of the officials cited by 'Haaretz' said Netanyahu’s office asked senior American officials to press Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over this issue when he visited Washington last week. Israel had hoped American pressure might lead Abbas to order Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, to drop his efforts to advance the motion at the FIFA Congress.
The FIFA Council, formerly the Executive Committee, is to determine the Congress’ final agenda on Tuesday. If a vote is held, Israel’s chances of winning it are considered slim.
Last week, in a letter to Infantino, World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder also said that "the campaign of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) to sanction Israel has no place on the FIFA Congress’ agenda." He pointed out that "Jews and Arabs play together on Israeli football teams.
There are fears that if the issue isn’t removed from the agenda, the FIFA Congress will likely vote on the motion under which Israel would be given six months to halt soccer games in the settlements. If Israel failed to do so, the issue would return to the FIFA Council, which would then be asked to approve sanctions against either the six settlement teams or the Israel Football Association as a whole.
The Palestinians have been pressing FIFA for action against Israel since 2015. Article 72.2 of the FIFA Statutes says: "Member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval." The Palestinians argue that the six settlement teams violate this provision, and that if Israel doesn’t shut these teams down, it ought to be suspended from FIFA.
The teams in question are based in Ma’aleh Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Arba, Givat Ze’ev, the Jordan Valley and Oranit. All of them play in lower-level leagues.
