By Andrew Warshaw, Manama, Bahrain
May 9 – Last-ditch talks aimed at resolving football’s Israeli-Palestinian impasse broke up amid bitterness and acrimony today, a crushing blow for FIFA and its chief Middle East negotiator Tokyo Sexwale, at the end of his mandate.
Sexwale had brought the two parties together on the eve of the FIFA Congress here hoping – perhaps against hope – to finally forge a compromise and end the deep divisions that have obstructed the talks at every turn.
The South African one-time FIFA presidential candidate had hoped to take some kind of agreement into the FIFA Council session later in the day to avoid a potential Congress showdown on Thursday.
But after several hours of discussion – much of it waiting while Sexual and general secretary Fatma Samoura held private discussion – at one of the official hotels set aside for FIFA delegates, the parted ended with no resolution. Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub repeated his insistence that Israeli clubs stop playing in the occupied territories or face the consequences.
On Monday, as the dispute intensified, Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman had told his own regional congress that the AFC stood united with Palestine and urged “FIFA to come up with the best solution as soon as possible”.
Reports also emerged that Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu had called FIFA president Gianni Infantino asking he remove the Israel-Palestine item from the Congress agenda later this Thursday.
Inevitably it all came to a head when the two parties sat round the table with Sexwale, not for the first time, to thrash out the PFA’s requested removal of six Israeli teams playing in the West Bank settlement areas, citing article 72.2 of the FIFA Statutes which state : “Member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association.”
The Israelis counter that the teams are playing on settled land in Zone C of the division of the West Bank and that the Palestinians are using this as a first step to getting the Israeli FA either expelled or suspended from FIFA.
Rajoub poured scorn on the Israeli position, telling reporters he had no choice but to again demand action at Thursday’s Congress.
Rajoub told reporters: “We had a very hot discussion, The Israelis again sent threats to everybody that no-one has the right to do anything against them.”
We will keep asking the Israeli federation to abide by the FIFA statutes and arrange their sporting activities within internationally recognised borders and stop their humiliation.”
FIFA has been trying to mediate in the dispute for more than three years but it clear there will be no common ground before the matter reaches Congress.
Israel claims Rajoub is trying to redraw the territorial borders through football but he says he will ask Congress to “end Israel’s violation of the statutes”. Palestine counter claim the same.
“Either they abide or they face sanctions,” Rajoub said. “There is no agreement. The Israelis want to keep talking for the sake of talking. We cannot continue like this. They are committing a fatal mistake.”
Rajoub’s interpretation of the crisis is in stark contrast with Israel’s own view of what happened at today’s meeting at which – depending who you talk to – Sexwale was apparently “in despair” at having failed in his mandate to forge a deal.
In March Sexwale had proposed a three-option draft, including a six-month period for Israel to relocate the six clubs, and asked both sides to respond within a month.
Insideworldfootball understands the PFA only put forward their comments at today’s summit that lasted around four hours and that there will almost certainly be no vote at Congress. The PFA vigorously deny this saying it met all the deadlines for comment and that it was the IFA who requested a deadline extension. “The PFA, as has always done, presented its comments, corrections and amendments in time and even before IFA did because we have always worked professionally and have never had any intention to delay the outcome of this Committee,” said a Palestinian source.
Instead, some kind of fudge will probably be tabled for yet more discussions that will almost certainly remain unresolved for the foreseeable future – or at least until Israel has studied what it claims is new Palestinian documentation.
“How can we agree to something on the spur of the moment that we had never seen before,” one source close to the Israeli delegation told Insideworldfootball.
“And how can we sit in a committee while the Palestinians submit a motion to suspend Israel. Don’t be fooled by the headlines of the Palestinian proposal about recognising rights. We have already done that from the moment they joined FIFA. Once this term has been accepted, what it really means is that we should be sanctioned. Never once in the history of FIFA have we ever been proved to have violated any rules.”
The PFA says it has not submitted any new motion or a motion to suspend Israel. The PFA did submit a motion in 2015 which it then withdrew at that Congress in Zurich after a highly emotional debate.
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