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CONMEBOL and the Israel Football Association announced they had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Thursday to the bewilderment of fans and journalists alike.
The announcement comes as Israel’s war on Gaza passes the six month mark and after the International Court of Justice has ruled that there is plausible evidence of genocide being committed by Israeli forces.
At no point in Israel’s 76-year history has its brand been so maligned. So why did CONMEBOL with no historic links to the state stick its neck out to sign this MOU?
There have been no shortage of Israeli detractors in South America. Bolivia and Venezuela have no diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. In the aftermath of the current war, Chile, Colombia, and Brazil have all recalled their ambassadors.
Just last month, Colombian President Gustavo Petro threatened to cut off all relations if Israel did not abide by the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution. Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called Israel’s action a “genocide” and compared it to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.”
Those five countries make up half of CONMEBOL’s ten members making any meaningful cooperation complicated, to say the least. It is even more bizarre that CONMEBOL would get involved with the Israel Football Association at a time when several EU Parliamentarians, 13 Middle Eastern football Associations, and even Gary Lineker have called for Israel to be banned from world football.
Infantino’s South American Ties
Nine years into Infantino’s tenure there has been a lust to be close to those in power. Casual sports observers will remember his bizarre hoodie/suit combination during the 2026 FIFA World Cup schedule reveal- which also featured Infantino slipping into Kim Kardashian’s DMs on Instagram.
It is not just celebrity stardust that Infantino chases.
At the beginning of his tenure in 2015 he realized the untapped potential of state money. Instead of waiting four years to rake in billions, Infantino realized FIFA could get paid on a more regular basis. China and e-commerce giant Alibaba were the first patrons of an expanded FIFA World Cup but when the COVID-19 pandemic scuppered those plans there was a shift to Saudi Arabia. ARAMCO, the state-oil company has recently penned a multi-million dollar sponsorship with FIFA who awarded the 2034 tournament to the Kingdom by cleaning the slate of all competing bids.
To bring a World Cup back to West Asia for the second time in twelve years Infantino engineered a three-continent edition- the result of folding two bids into one. Uruguay, the home of the first ever World Cup combined forces with Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay to present a sentimental bid to celebrate the centenary edition in 2030. Their competition was an Iberian bid that itself folded a third host- Morocco- to bolster its hopes of victory.
In lieu of putting the competing bids to a vote, FIFA decided unilaterally to combine the two bids. There would be opening games in Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay (Chile was dropped from the bid) and the rest of the tournament would be held between Morocco, Portugal, and Spain.
That slight of hand meant that FIFA had cycled through four continents in two editions allowing an Asian country to bid again.
The maneuvering of Gianni Infantino was supported to the hilt by CONMEBOL’s Paraguayan President, Alejandro Dominguez. Who has been the beneficiary of Infantino’s rule by decree on more than one occasion.
Last year, when Indonesia refused to host Israel’s team for the 2023 U20 World Cup. The competition was stripped from Indonesia and controversially awarded to Argentina who had not even qualified for the tournament.
Dominguez and Infantino did not always see eye-to-eye. In 2020, Dominguez accused Infantino of abusing his power following the decision to move a meeting of the FIFA Council from Paraguay to Switzerland.
Whatever problems the pair might have had seem a relic of the past as Infantino received full support from CONMEBOL during his latest re-election bid.
Infantino and the Abraham Accords
In 2021, just months removed from a brutal assault on Gaza, East Jerusalem, and vigilante attacks on Palestinian citizens of Israel Infantino proposed a World Cup hosted by Israel and her neighbors.
The forum for his remarks was The Museum of Tolerance erected on a millennia-old Mammila Cemetery. Infantino was there to honor David Friedman, Donald Trump’s Ambassador to Israel who was inaugurating the David Friedman Center for Peace through Strength.
It was the latest chapter in the FIFA President attempting to associate his brand with power. The year prior, Infantino was at the White House ceremony to celebrate the signing of the Abraham Accords which normalized relations between Israel and Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
The controversy around Trump and Friedman did not bother Infantino at all. For context, Friedman, before taking the mantle of US Ambassador to Israel, was the head of an organization that opposed the two-state solution and gave $2 Million per year to the Settlement of Bet El in the Ramallah Governante.
Friedman is so toxic that even The Washington Post described his Senate confirmation as a “sharply partisan vote was a notable departure from past votes to confirm ambassadors to Israel.”
The Palestine Football Association were caught off-guard by Infantino’s visit and statement and moved to issue a clarification and cancel their meeting with the FIFA President.
Infantino returned to Palestine two years later and met with both the PFA and IFA in May 2023. Four months later, CONMEBOL President Alejandro Dominguez traveled to the region and met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the aftermath of Paraguay’s controversial decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem.
During the meeting, Dominguez promised Netanyahu to bring Messi and a team of South American superstars to the country for friendly matches.
October 7th
In early October, the table was perfectly set for Gainni Infantino. The 2034 World Cup bid was awarded to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, had told Fox News that normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel was getting “closer” by the day.
That vision of a World Cup hosted by Israel and her neighbors might have been a pipe dream in 2021. It looked a very real possibility on October 6th, 2023.
On October 13th, a letter of condolence was sent the President of the Israel Football Association by FIFA President Gianni Infanftino. In it, he expressed hope that football could be a vehicle for peace. Since them, FIFA has been mum in spite of a rising death toll, the destruction of stadiums, and the murder of hundreds of Palestinian athletes.
Understandably, there have been renewed calls for Israel’s suspension from FIFA especially given the precedence set by the Ukraine-Russia war.
Infantino will, in all likelihood, swat away any campaign to kick Israel out of football. His reputation as an ardent supporter of Israel was evident to those in the IFA when he first ascended to the presidency in 2015.
Avi Luzon, a former Israel FA chairman expressed joy at the result in 2015: “I have worked closely with him for the past seven years since he became UEFA secretary-general and he is a true personal friend and friend of Israel. His election will make it difficult for anybody to impose sanctions on Israeli football.
“It’s an excellent choice from Israel’s point of view and he has always helped Israeli football whenever I’ve asked him.”
One of his defeated rivals in that 2015 race was Prince Ali bin Al-Hussein, President of the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) and who is currently spearheading efforts to suspend Israel from FIFA.
That will be particularly challenging as one of Infantino’s key decisions upon assuming FIFA’s Presidency was to make sure a FIFA member could not be suspended by the General Assembly. The FIFA Council would need to approve the motion first. Alejandro Dominguez’s CONMEBOL control five of the 37 seats and the recent MOU signing should be seen in the light of protecting Israel’s FIFA status.
In fact, Dominguez has already started publicly lobbying that FIFA “do justice” by CONMEBOL and award the rights to the 2027 Womens’ World Cup to Brazil. The CONMEBOL President went on the record this week to rhetorically ask “Why shouldn’t we think of more World Cup matches in South America in 2030?”
A letter sent by the Palestine Football Association demanding Israel be sanctioned was sent to FIFA on March 11th. The PFA has the backing of six other Football Associations but have stopped short of asking for a ban.
FIFA is set to decide the host of the 2027 Women’s World Cup as well as vote on other “key issues” next month when Football’s governing body convenes for the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok.
Just don’t expect any sanctions against Israel to make the agenda.
