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Will FIFA ever make a decision in regards to banning Israel? As the old saying goes: Once is an accident, Twice is a coincidence, Three times is a pattern.
This is now the fourth time a decision has been delayed.
FIFA simply does not want to rock boat. An overwhelming majority of the world is in favour of banning Israel from international football competitions. That said, it is not about democratic rule. The international community is not the UN General Assembly. The global football family is not the fans, nor the players, nor the FIFA Congress made up of 212 individual Football Associations.
The global football family for all intents and purposes is the FIFA Council and its President Gianni Infantino.
The sole focus of that body since its inception has been to chase money. Suspending Israel risks the money pot in North America and as such FIFA is praying that a ceasefire can be achieved in the interim and for the pressure to die down.
There is no need to rehash the many crimes, the destruction of football grounds, the murder of footballers, not just in Palestine, but in neighboring Lebanon as well.
Infantino says there will be an investigation. How this investigation will be conducted when even the Secretary General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres has been declared persona non grata by Israel remains to be seen.
How Kuwait booted Israel from the Asian Football Confederation
Football used to stand for something more than the stacking of dollar bills. When the world was rapidly decolonizing in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Newly independent nations banned together to boot the avowed racist Stanley Rous from the FIFA Presidency.
Aligning himself with the Western sphere of power Rous supported South Africa’s apartheid team and he insisted a World Cup qualifier had to be played in Chile in a Stadium whose bowels held political prisoners.
Those same nations that put an end to Rous banned South Africa and Rhodesia from FIFA. In the same spirit, Kuwaiti FA President Ahmed Al-Sadoun launched a plan to boot Israel from the Asian Football Confederation. To do so he increased the membership of Arab teams in the organization from two- Lebanon and Kuwait- to nine. Convincing Iraq, Jordan, Syria, and Bahrain to join between 1969 and 1970. Saudi Arabia in 1972, and the UAE and Qatar in 1974.
Al-Sadoun used his power to convince the Asian Football Confederation to move the 1972 Asian Cup finals from Israel to Thailand. Two years later in Kuala Lumpur, Al-Sadoun was successfully in freezing Israel’s membership because it was adjudged that football was no longer being nurtured in the territories under its jurisdiction. The vote passed 17-13 with six abstentions.
Most football observers assume that was the end of the story. Israel protested the decision calling for Al-Sadoun to be booted from his role as one of FIFA’s Vice Presidents for “politicising football”.
What most people are unaware of was that Israel was prevented from finding a home in Europe by Kuwait four years later. Yugoslavia had put forth a proposal for Israel to join UEFA and in an attempt to find support Israel was lobbying several Asian nations in Bangkok to vote in favor.
Al-Sadoun’s successor, the late Fahed Al-Ahmed interceded; flying from to Bangkok to counter Israel’s efforts which led to the motion failing days later. Israel would remain unattached to a confederation until 1994 as a result of Kuwait’s efforts.
Knowing full well the democratic power of the FIFA Congress, Gianni Infantino moved to castrate it by introducing the FIFA Council. As a result, Israel’s suspension remains highly unlikely given the nature of Infantino (a cheerleader of the Abraham Accords).
That said, it is still possible to lobby for change. The Palestinian and Lebanese FAs can and should go to UEFA- find some friends and lead the charge there. Individuals on the FIFA Council can also be swayed. All this requires work and something the notoriously work-shy Rajoub seems reticent to commit to.
One must also ask after failing to pull the trigger in 2015 just when the Congress was set to vote on Israel’s suspension if he is really interested in anything more than performative action.
