The council of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) held a session in Manama Bahrain and decided not to discuss the issue of the Israeli clubs playing in the settlements built in the occupied West Bank and to exclude it from the agenda of the conference.
The FIFA officially announced in a statement on Wednesday that it had decided not to include the issue of the Israeli clubs playing in the settlements for discussion or voting at the FIFA conference held in Bahrain. The FIFA claimed that it is “too early to take a decision on the matter”.
On the sidelines of the conference in Manama the FIFA Israel-Palestine Committee held a session in the presence of the head of the Palestinian Football Association Jibril Rajoub and his Israeli counterpart Ofer Eini without reaching an understanding regarding the Palestinian request to ban six Israeli football teams from playing in the illegal settlements. The file was referred to the FIFA General Assembly.
According to the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz an official in the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that despite the fact that the FIFA excluded this issue from the agenda of the conference the Palestinian side still has the chance to file a second request to the FIFA to be discussed and voted on.
This decision came after Israel submitted a unilateral proposal to the FIFA to solve the issue. Israel fears that sanctions might be imposed on it especially after the FIFA Israel-Palestine Committee gave it a six-month time limit to suspend football matches in the settlements.
Haaretz reported that the proposed solution does not make many changes on the status quo but provides a practical solution to the issue as confirmed by a senior Israeli official.
The Israeli official refused to disclose the details of the proposed solution but he affirmed that it maintains the status of the Israeli sport in the settlements on one side and gives the FIFA a space to find solutions for the issue without imposing sanctions on Israel on the other.
Since 2005 the Palestinian Football Association has been pressuring FIFA and its member states regarding the Israeli clubs playing in the settlements. Based on Article (72.22) of the FIFA constitution all countries are prevented from forming football teams and playing their matches on the territories of another country without being permitted by this country. The international law considers the Israeli settlements as illegal since they are established in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has six football teams that apply to this article and play in the Israeli league for the settlements of Ma’ale Adumim Ariel Kiryat Arba Giv’at Ze’ev Jordan Valley and Oranit.
