Israel participation not on Fifa agenda

A Thursday Fifa council meeting in Zurich did not include Israel’s participation in football on the agenda.

Following a UN commission of inquiry’s conclusion last month that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, the main decision-making body of Fifa is convening.

Although it is not on the agenda, it might be brought up in the “miscellaneous” section.

Israel’s participation in international football will be a subject of discussion, according to BBC Sport’s contact.

Amnesty International recently urged the Israeli Football Association (IFA) to halt play at the World Cup and Uefa, which organizes European competitions.

Victor Montagliani, the vice president of FIFA, has suggested that Uefa should decide.

“First and foremost, I have to deal with a member of my region for whatever reason because Israel is a member of Uefa.” He said, “They have to deal with that.”

In their qualifying group for the World Cup, Israel is six points clear of Norway’s leaders in Uefa’s organization.

The winners of each group’s play-offs are automatically followed by the runners-up, with the top team from each group automatically qualifying for the tournament.

The US, Mexico, and Canada will host the 2026 World Cup on a co-hosted basis.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has vowed to stop any attempts to obstruct Israel’s participation.

According to the UN report, there are logical grounds to believe that four of the five genocidal crimes have been committed since the war’s start in 2023.

Following that, a panel of UN human rights experts demanded that Fifa and Uefa ban Israel’s national team from international competition, saying: “Sports must reject the perception that it is business as usual.”

Israel has consistently disputed that the actions taken in Gaza constitute a genocide and that they are necessary as a means of self-defense. The UN report was deemed “distorted and false” by its foreign ministry.

Reebok, a sports brand, called it “simply not true” that it requested the IFA remove its logos from its team kits.

Reebok and the local franchisee, IFA president Moshe Zuares, and the company’s representatives exchanged the company’s statement, which read, “The company reversed its decision to end its contract with Israel national teams,” according to a statement released by the IFA.

Reebok “is proud of our record as a unifier of all cultures on and off the pitch,” according to a Reebok spokesman.