By Andrew Warshaw
May 24 – In the latest twist to one of the most contentious issues at the FIFA Congress earlier this month, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin is reported to have played a crucial role in thwarting a Palestinian vote against Israel. Sources close to Ceferin insisted to Insideworldfootball he did not influence the decision on Palestine and that it was a unanimous agreement among Council members not to allow a vote as there were not adequate enough reports for a decision to be taken at that time.
According to unconfirmed Israeli reports, Ceferin backed Israeli FA boss Ofer Eini (pictured) in rebuffing an attempt by the Palestine Football Association to get FIFA to impose a six-month deadline on Israel to stop six of its lower-league clubs playing in the occupied territories.
The Israeli media outlet ONE claims Ceferin joined Eini at a private meeting with FIFA president Gianni Infantino shortly after the final and inconclusive session of the FIFA Israel-Palestine Monitoring Committee chaired by Tokyo Sexwale. It is not clear whether this meeting took place or not.
Later the same day, claimed ONE, Ceferin made his position clear in the FIFA Council which took the highly emotive decision to take the item off the Congress agenda. That move was based on the feeling there was not enough information provided to make a decision on the matter at Congress.
Ultimately, much to the anger of the Palestinians who wanted the matter brought to a head, Infantino ruled during the Congress that Sexwale’s committee had not completed its work and that more time was needed.
There is another equally intriguing twist to the plot, according to One. The evening before the Congress convened, it claims, Sexwale decided after all that he would submit his findings to delegates.
Eini is reported to have objected strongly to this and to have contacted everyone of influence including Infantino, Čeferin, and FIFA general secretary Fatma Samoura.
In the end Sexwale did not appear even though, according to ONE’s behind-the-scenes account, the South African did in fact submit his hastily completed report in the early hours of the morning, only for it never to see the light of day.
Tellingly, Sexwale did not speak at the Congress even though it was the same body that gave him his mandate in the first place.
Whether or not One’s version of events is a true account of what happened, it only serves to underline the political complexities involved, highlighted by the fact that Israel is a member of UEFA and the PFA part of Asian football, with all the thorny nuances such a scenario throws up.
Let’s not forget either that Malaysia was originally supposed to host the Congress, only for the summit to be switched to Bahrain when the Malaysians refused to allow the Israeli flag to appear alongside those of all the other FIFA members.
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