UEFA to vote on Israel's suspension from all competitions
Israel may be at risk of being suspended from all European football competitions with UEFA reportedly to vote on the matter on Tuesday, following pressure on the sporting body amid the genocide in Gaza.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that UEFA’s executive committee is expected to meet, and Israel’s national team might be removed from European qualifiers, with clubs like Maccabi Tel Aviv banned from the Europa League.
This came amid reports of a campaign to pressure UEFA to hold a vote, reportedly led by Qatar, one of UEFA’s key financial backers.
Reports say the majority of the members of UEFA's board support the removal of Israel, with only a handful of countries being against the measure. At the same time, the Israel Football Association have also been leading lobbying efforts to prevent the matter from reaching a vote.
Following Israel’s genocidal war, which has killed over 65,000 Palestinians, the sporting body has been receiving multiple calls for Israel to be removed from international football, with many comparing it to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Banners have appeared in football games denouncing Israel’s war. UEFA displayed a banner reading “Stop Killing Children, Stop Killing Civilians” at the Super Cup final match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham as part of its ceremony in September.
While the banner was approved by UEFA’s President Aleksander Ceferin, he has defended the decision not to ban Israel, arguing that players should not be held accountable for their government’s actions.
Ceferin added that while Russian teams have been banned for three years, the war on Ukraine has still not stopped.
Former football player Eric Cantona has also called for UEFA to ban Israel, adding that Russia still remains prohibited from European football over its ongoing war on Ukraine.
UEFA was also recently slammed over its “vague” statement on Israel’s killing of a Gazan footballer, which failed to mention the cause of his death.
Several European countries and sports federations have expressed anger at the prospect of competing against Israeli teams, including Italy and Spain.
Campaigns such as #GameOverIsrael are actively pressuring their countries’ football federations to boycott Israeli teams and to ban Israeli players from domestic leagues.
Israel has been accused of committing a cultural genocide as its war wages on, having killed at least 412 Palestinian football players out of the over 800 athletes killed since October 2023, with nearly half being children, as well as destroying around 90 percent of sports infrastructure in Gaza – according to the Palestinian Football Association.