Uefa could decide as early as next week whether to suspend Israel from its competitions, with the governing body facing growing pressure from inside and outside the game.
Reports on Thursday, initially in the Times, suggested a vote that would determine Israel’s participation in World Cup qualifying and that of Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League could be held by Uefa’s executive committee before the international break begins on 6 October.
Uefa said no meetings were scheduled for next week, with the next exco gathering due on 3 December. But sources inside national federations said events appeared to be coming to a head and that Uefa and its president, Aleksander Ceferin, were increasingly expected to take action.
There have been an increasing number of interventions away from the game. On Tuesday, a group of senior diplomats called on Uefa and Fifa to enact a ban after the publication of a report by the United Nations independent international commission of inquiry that found Israel was committing genocide in Gaza. Last week, the campaign group Game Over Israel took over a billboard in New York’s Times Square to call for federations to boycott any matches with the country.
It is understood that voices within the game have also been speaking up in private, including those from the club world.
Italy is one of the countries under pressure to act. The Azzurri, along with Norway, are due to face Israel in the next round of qualifiers, with their match scheduled for 14 October in Udine. Italy is fresh from a 24-hour general strike in protest against Israel’s behaviour in Gaza.
Gabriele Gravina, the president of the Italian football federation, who sits on the Uefa exco, said this week that any boycott “would only favour Israel, who could in theory be boosted in their qualifying path to the tournament”. He also said he “denounced” the suffering in Gaza and that “there is nobody who could be indifferent to this feeling of suffering and pain”.
Any decision to suspend the Israel Football Association would be taken in a simple majority vote by the 19 members of Uefa’s exco. Insiders suggest if it were proposed, the vote would have a strong chance of passing with as few as three or four abstentions or votes against. It could, however, have considerable political consequences.
The United States government, for example, has warned it would stand against any such decision, with the country co-hosting the World Cup next summer. “We will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup,” a spokesperson for the US Department of State told Sky News.
Any suspension would mean Uefa removing a participant from a Fifa-organised competition. Fifa, under its president, Gianni Infantino, has developed a strong relationship with the Trump administration.
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The global governing body is investigating allegations of teams staging matches in illegal settlements in the West Bank, a review that follows a request by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) in 2024.
On Thursday, Jibril Rajoub, the PFA president, said he will meet Ceferin and Kirsty Coventry, the president of the International Olympic Committee, to discuss the issue next week. “I believe that Israelis should not be allowed to participate in any matches, whether they are Uefa- or Fifa-regulated,” he told TV2 in Norway. “Israel has violated principles, values and Fifa’s statutes. Therefore, I believe that Israel should be sanctioned. I hope Uefa will follow the spirit of the statutes.”
In cycling, the Canadian sponsor of the Israel-Premier Tech team has called for a name change. Its riders were targeted by protesters at the recent Vuelta a España, causing disruption to the Grand Tour event. It was estimated more than 100,000 people were on the streets in Madrid during the final stage, with protesters criticising the presence of the Israel Premier Tech team. In a statement reported by Radio Canada, Premier Tech said: “The current situation regarding the team name is no longer sustainable to achieve our goal.”