Hundreds of French peace activists and Arab community members in France organized a sit-in outside the French Football Federation headquarters in Paris in a protest ahead of a key FIFA meeting to discuss teams from Israeli settlements.
The event was organized as FIFA’s executive committee is expected to discuss the issue during meetings on Thursday and Friday.
The protesters have called on FIFA to expel Israeli settlements’ football teams.
FIFA is facing pressure to rule that six Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories should either relocate to Israel or be banned from FIFA-recognized competitions.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) has earlier said in a report that FIFA is breaking its own rules by allowing clubs in occupied Palestinian territories to compete in its tournaments.
HRW’s report follows an online petition signed by more than 150000 people as well as an open letter from dozens of European MEPs this month calling on FIFA to act on the issue.
