Amnesty calls on FIFA and UEFA to ban Israel over settlement clubs playing in Israeli leagues

October 1- Amnesty International has added its voice to calls for FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel from the international game because of Israeli settlement clubs in the West Bank.

In a letter addressed to Gianni Infantino and Aleksander Ceferin, the NGO invoked a violation of international law and article 64.2 of the FIFA statutes to demand that the governing bodies act against Israel. On Thursday, the FIFA Council will meet, but it is understood that Israel is not on the agenda. At the time of writing, FIFA had not yet published the agenda for the Council.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said: “Israel is brutally expanding its illegal settlements and legitimising illegal outposts in the West Bank as part of its unlawful occupation of Palestinian Territory. It is nothing short of a disgrace that the IFA (Israeli Football Association) is still allowing clubs from these settlements to keep playing in its leagues, after multiple warnings for more than a decade.”

The FIFA statutes state that “member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval.”

Last year, the Palestine FA (PFA) demanded Fifa suspend Israel at the annual congress in Bangkok, Thailand because of settlement clubs in the West Bank, an issue the PFA first raised 13 years ago. FIFA responded by commissioning a legal review by independent experts, but the assessment and decision were postponed to allow Israel to compete in the Olympic football tournament in Paris, France.

The Amnesty letter notes that the “current situation is intolerable”, saying: “FIFA and UEFA’s relationship with the IFA – providing funding and allowing Israeli teams to play in international tournaments, despite flouting FIFA’s own statutes – means that FIFA and UEFA may also be contributing to these violations.”

At the last FIFA Congress, in Luque, Paraguay, FIFA argued that it needed more legal advice about settlement clubs in the West Bank.

The organisation’s secretary general Mattias Grafstrom said the Governance Audit and Compliance Committee had “requested expert reporting, including on topics of territoriality, to support its work.”

Callamard said: “There should be no place in football, or indeed in any sport, for clubs based in illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The IFA is shamelessly contributing to Israel’s violations of international law by providing sporting and economic opportunities that help sustain, these illegal settlements.

“Football is not played in a vacuum. FIFA and UEFA must accept their responsibilities under international law and stop letting Israeli national teams and club sides participate in international or European football until the IFA suspends all clubs from illegal settlements.”

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