May 22 – Human rights research and advocacy NGO Fairsquare has accused FIFA of “ad hoc and selective enforcement of its rules” following the world governing body’s failure to act against the Israeli Football Association (IFA).
At last week’s FIFA Congress, Zurich yet again stalled when the Palestinian FA (PFA) demanded a swift conclusion to the investigation by the governance, audit and compliance committee into Israeli settlement clubs. PFA vice-president Susan Shalabi demanded that the buck not be passed from one committee to the next, twelve years after her organisation first raised the issue. But FIFA secretary-general Matthias Grafstrom noted that two committees would need time “to appropriately inform themselves on the matter”.
“It is increasingly apparent that FIFA’s senior leadership will do whatever it can to ensure that the FIFA Congress will not be given a vote on the PFA’s proposal to suspend Israel,” FairSquare director Nick McGeehan. “FIFA’s senior leadership talk about independence while engaging in open political interference designed to protect the Israeli Football Association from the consequences of its violation of the FIFA Statutes.”
FairSquare invoked UNSC Resolution 2334 as well as the 2024 judgement by the International Court of Justice to rubbish Grafstrom’s claims that more time is required to explore the notion of ‘territoriality’. The NGO wrote: “The illegality of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory is a matter of established fact.” FIFA’s statutes prohibit member associations from organizing football matches on another member’s land without permission.
In a speech from the floor, Shalabi had told Congress: “Let’s not keep rewriting the minutes of meetings and passing the bucket from one committee to the other, while football in Palestine is being erased. We need to act now.”
FairSquare previously submitted a report that highlighted reasons to suspend or expel Israel from the international game, including the holding of matches in occupied Palestinian territory, serious and systematic racial discrimination, political interference and Israel’s killing of Palestinian players and the systematic destruction of PFA facilities.
Contact the writer of this story, Samindra Kunti, atmoc.l1747932123labto1747932123ofdlr1747932123owedi1747932123sni@i1747932123tnuk.1747932123ardni1747932123mas 1747932123