FIFA delays decision about suspending Israeli national team from international football

The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) has decided once again to postpone its decision regarding the request by the Palestinian Football Association to ban the Israeli nation team from international competitions due to Israel’s ongoing genocidal war in the Gaza Strip and its massacres of Palestinians since last October. At least 297 footballers are among the 410 Palestinian athletes known to have been killed by Israel over the past year.

“FIFA has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association’s proposals against the Israel Football Association,” said FIFA on X. “This assessment will be sent to the FIFA Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting, which will take place in October. FIFA would like to thank both member associations for their ongoing support and cooperation.”

The Palestinian FA has been seeking to ban the Israeli occupation team from the competitions since last May, when FIFA opened an urgent legal assessment and promised to consider the matter during an extraordinary meeting of its Council in July. However, it postponed the discussion and promised that it would present the legal assessment to its Council by 31 August. It surprised everyone by postponing this yet again to October.

FIFA also refused to disclose further details regarding the evaluation or the specific date for the meeting, and the Palestinian FA has not yet responded to this postponement. The Palestinian association had called on FIFA to impose “appropriate sanctions” against all Israeli teams, the national team as well as those in club football.

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