The European football organization UEFA goes to the vote to suspend Israel

The European football organization UEFA heads to a vote to suspend its Federation Member Israel during the war in Gaza, people familiar with the proposal to the Associated Press said on Thursday.

The majority of the executive committee of 20 UEFA members should support any vote in favor of the suspension of the Israeli International Game teams, two sources said to the Associated Press subject to anonymity due to the subject’s sensitivity.

Such a step would prevent Israeli national teams and clubs from playing in international competitions, including next year’s World Cup. The Israeli male team should resume its qualification campaign in the World Cup in two weeks with outside matches against Norway and Italy.

It is not clear if the world football body FIFA will support Israel exclusion given the close relations between the leader of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, and President Donald Trump.

The support of the Trump administration to secure the World Cup and treat visas for players, officials and potentially hundreds of thousands of visitors, is considered the key to FIFA offering a successful tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico next year.

A spokesperson for the State Department said that he would work to stop all the efforts that have tried to ban the Israel team from the World Cup.

The FIFA power council should meet in Zurich next week. The council of 37 members includes eight UEFA.

FIFA refused to comment on Thursday. Infantino is based this week at the FIFA satellite office in Trump Tower in Manhattan while attending events on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.

The calls to exclude Israel from football and other sports have increased in recent weeks in the middle of an uproar on the humanitarian balance sheet of its military campaign in Gaza. Last week, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that Israel should be prohibited from international sporting events, just like Russia, which was sidelined after its large -scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Earlier this week, seven independent experts working with the United Nations Human Rights Council urged FIFA and UEFA to suspend Israel of international competitions.

UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin reported a more difficult opinion on Israel last month when banners saying “Stop killing children. Stop killing civilians” were placed on the field in front of the Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham teams before the Super Cup match in Udine, Italy.

Look | Football fans call for Israel’s boycott of international games:

Football fans call for Israel’s boycott of international games

Football fans demand the sporting organs of sport – FIFA and UEFA – suspend the Israeli national teams and clubs to participate in international games in response to its attacks against Gaza, occupied West Bank and Lebanon.

The discussion on the advisability of banning Israel of international sports intervenes that Israel faces growing criticism and isolation on its military campaign, launched in response to the attack led by Hamas on October 7, 2023.

Last week, Israel was accused of having committed a genocide in Gaza by a commission of inquiry commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The Minister of Sports and Culture of Israel, Miki Zohar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of the Israeli football federation, Moshe Zuares, worked “intensely behind the scenes” to block the efforts to oust IUFA Israel, said the Zohar office on Thursday. “The right step is now to act responsible with professionals and not to make declarations, and this is how all the parties involved in the efforts work. We will approach it later.”

The decision to prohibit Russia in 2022 was partly drawn by a group of UEFA member federations refusing to play matches planned against Russian opponents. No national team or club in Europe has so far refused to play an Israeli opponent, although football leaders in Norway and Italy have publicly expressed their discomfort in recent weeks.

The Norwegian Football Federation has also been committed to giving its ticket sales for the October 11 match in OSLO to humanitarian work in Gaza by doctors without borders.

Gabriele Gravina and Lise Klaveness of Italy of Norway are elected members of the UEFA Executive Committee who could vote on the suspension of Israel. Zuares, president of the Israeli Football Federation, is also part of the panel, just like Nasser Al-Khelaifi, member of the Qatari government who is president of the Paris Saint-Germain European champion.

Israel has enraged Qatar, an influential American ally that was a key mediator throughout the war, with an air strike from September 9 targeting Hamas leaders in Doha, the Qatari capital.

During the Champions League final in May, PSG fans displayed a banner saying “Stop Genocide in Gaza” in French. UEFA has not opened a disciplinary case despite rules against political messaging inside the stages.

Wednesday evening in Greece, the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv played Pak in the Europa League organized by UEFA. There have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside the stadium in Thessaloniki and a “Stop Genocide” banner displayed inside.