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The province of Udine, in northeastern Italy, refused to host its national football team’s match against Israel.
The local press reported yesterday that Gabriele Gravina, president of the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), had offered the mayor of Udine to host the match at the Bluenergy Stadium on 14 October as part of the Nations League matches.
It added that the municipal administration rejected the offer for fear that this “would be divisive with Israel being a state at war.”
“Hosting such a match at a time when Israel is a country at war runs the risk of causing divisions and social problems rather than improving Udine’s image,” said Mayor Alberto Felice De Toni, who was elected as a centre-left candidate for Udine mayor last year.
Since 7 October, Israel, with American support, has been waging a brutal war on Gaza that has killed and wounded about 128,000 Palestinians, most of them children and women. It has also left more than 10,000 people missing amid massive destruction and deadly famine.
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