FIFA’s ongoing failure to enforce sanctions against the Israeli Football Association (IFA) despite long-standing and irrefutable evidence that the IFA is in violation of FIFA Statutes is further evidence of the organisation’s ad hoc and selective enforcement of its rules.
At its 75th annual Congress held in Paraguay on 15 May – twelve years after the Palestine Football Association first complained to FIFA about the IFA sanctioning matches on its territory, and more than a year after the PFA complained again to FIFA in the context of Israel’s military assault in Gaza – FIFA Secretary General Matthias Grafström told the FIFA Congress that two FIFA committees were still investigating the complaint, and that new members of those committees would need time “to appropriately inform themselves on the matter”.
Grafström also said that one of the committees had “recently requested expert reporting including on topics of territoriality.” The illegality of Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory is a matter of established fact. A 2016 United Nations Security Council resolution stated that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace”. A 2024 judgement by the International Court of Justice confirmed the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, along with the associated settlement regime, annexation and use of natural resources.
The FIFA Secretary General pointedly referenced the committees’ independence, but, as detailed in the timeline below, this is the latest in a long series of apparently politically motivated stalling tactics from FIFA, which have the effect of protecting the IFA from suspension or exclusion from FIFA.
“It is increasingly apparent that FIFA’s senior leadership will do whatever it can to ensure that the FIFA Congress will not be given a vote on the PFA’s proposal to suspend Israel. FIFA’s senior leadership talk about independence while engaging in open political interference designed to protect the Israeli Football Association from the consequences of its violation of the FIFA Statutes.” FairSquare director Nick McGeehan.
Both the FIFA Congress, which comprises representatives of FIFA’s 211 member associations, and the FIFA Council, a 37-person committee that takes decisions between the annual meetings of the FIFA Congress, have the power to suspend FIFA member associations under article 16 of FIFA’s Statutes. Only the FIFA Congress has the authority to expel member associations. In 2017 the FIFA Council declined to suspend Israel, but, despite having the requisite statutory authority, the FIFA Congress has never had the opportunity to vote on PFA proposals to sanction the IFA.
In a nine minute address to the FIFA Congress, Palestinian FA vice president Susan Shalabi said that, “our issue, sadly, again, is stuck in a highly politicized, bureaucratic holding pattern, not unlike the suffering of our people. Visible, undeniable, but sadly ignored.”
In her speech Shalabi referenced FairSquare’s support for the Palestinian FA’s demands, alongside that of UN human rights experts, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. In July 2024, FairSquare submitted a report to FIFA arguing that there are multiple grounds that should give FIFA cause to suspend or expel the IFA – the holding of matches in occupied Palestinian territory, serious and systematic racial discrimination, political interference, and Israel’s killing of Palestinian players and the systematic destruction of PFA facilities – most of which predate Israel’s attacks in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023. FIFA did not respond to the report.
A timeline of FIFA inaction
2013
The Palestine Football Association (PFA) claims that the Israel Football Association is violating provisions of the FIFA statutes that prohibit a member association from holding competitions on the territory of another member association without permission, in relation to illegal settlement clubs, including in Ma’aleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Bikat Hayarden and Ariel.
2015
FIFA member associations establish the FIFA Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine to “monitor the situation and find a solution to certain issues between the Israeli Football Association (IFA) and the Palestine Football Association (PFA).”
October 2017
Final report of the Monitoring Committee proposes three possible options to the FIFA Council, with one of those being that FIFA give the IFA six months to desist from administering football on Palestinian territory. The Committee chairman states: “What the FIFA leadership cannot any longer avoid is taking a decision on this matter. The Monitoring Committee can only recommend, it is the FIFA leadership that must decide.”
FIFA Council declines to take any action stating that: “Given that the final status of the West Bank territories is the concern of the competent international public law authorities, the FIFA Council agrees that FIFA, in line with the general principle established in its Statutes, must remain neutral with regard to political matters. … The matter is declared closed and will not be the subject of any further discussion until the legal and/or de facto framework has changed.”
March 2024
PFA submits a proposal requesting that the FIFA Congress, due to meet in May 2024, discuss adopting sanctions against Israel due to “1) international law violations committed by the Israeli occupation in Palestine, particularly in Gaza. 2) the IFA’s violation of the FIFA Statutes manifest in its continued inclusion of football teams located on the territory of another association (Palestine) in its national league 3) failure of the IFA in taking decisive action against discrimination and racism, in the areas under its jurisdiction.”
May 2024
The FIFA President ignores requests from the Palestinian and Jordanian football associations for the matter to be put to a vote at the 74th FIFA Congress. FIFA President Gianni Infantino states that “Due to the obvious sensitivity of these matters, FIFA will mandate as of now independent legal expertise to analyse and assess the three requests made by the PFA and ensure that the statutes and regulations are applied in the correct way. This legal assessment will have to allow for input and claims of both member associations.” Infantino says that an extraordinary FIFA Council meeting will be convened before 20 July 2024 to review the results of the legal assessment.
July 2024
FIFA issues a statement saying that “following requests for an extension from both parties to submit their respective positions, more time is needed to conclude this process with due care and completeness.” FIFA says that “the assessment will be shared with the FIFA Council for any subsequent decision to be taken no later than 31 August 2024.”
October 2024
FIFA issues a statement saying that “following recommendations and conclusions reached in the independent legal analysis mandated by FIFA” the FIFA Council has mandated the FIFA Disciplinary Committee to “initiate an investigation into the alleged offence of discrimination raised by the Palestine Football Association” and that “the FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee will be entrusted with the mission to investigate – and subsequently advise the FIFA Council on – the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based in the territory of Palestine.” FIFA has never published the independent legal analysis.
March 2025
The PFA submits a proposal in advance of the 75th FIFA Congress in Paraguay urging the FIFA Congress to “adopt a decision compelling FIFA Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee (GACC) to urgently conclude its investigation into the illegal Israeli settlement clubs on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) with a view to enabling the FIFA Council to make the final decision on the issue.”
May 2025
FIFA General Secretary Mattias Grafström addresses the 75th FIFA Congress and says that the work of the Governance, Audit and Compliance Committee and the work of the Disciplinary Committee “remains ongoing” and that they are “working diligently to conclude what is clearly a highly complex topic.” Grafström says that “as part of its analysis, we understand the GACC recently requested expert reporting including on topics of territoriality to support its work”. Grafstrom furthermore adds that since new members have joined both committees they, “should have the time to appropriately inform themselves on the matter prior to the final outcome.”
The IFA continues in 2025 to incorporate numerous illegal settlement clubs located in the territory of the PFA into its national league, including in Ma’aleh Adumim, Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Bikat Hayarden and Ariel.
