Palestinian football clubs and sports associations urge FIFA to immediately suspend the Israeli Football Association’s (IFA) membership over its inclusion of seven football teams based in illegal Israeli settlements.
Calls are mounting ahead of the 67th FIFA Congress for the world football governing body to expel Israeli football clubs based in illegal Israeli settlements.
Palestinians call for the dissolution of the FIFA Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine, used as cover for FIFA to prevent action on Israeli settlements.
As a follower of football, I am passionate and partisan when supporting my team. But, like all fans, I am infuriated when I sense that a referee is not applying the rules impartially.
On 5 September, 2016, the Palestinian National BDS Committee (BNC) released a letter to the Israel-Palestine Monitoring Committee, headed by Mr. Tokyo Sexwale addressing the inclusion of settlement teams in the Israeli League.
For the past 17 months the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has been demanding that the settlement-based clubs should be banned from all IFA leagues and competitions. Now the FIFA-led negotiations on the issue are coming to a head, with a proposal due to be presented to the FIFA Council on 13-14 October.