Plus ça change, as the French would say.
FIFA promised a lot of things to a lot of people. Under Gianni Infnatino the governing body of World Football was supposed to change for the better. There was going to be less corruption, more transparency, the playing field would be level for all.
Seeing itself as a community of nations, FIFA embraced “its responsibility to respect human rights across its operations and relationships” back in 2016.
FIFA drew a lot of ire for awarding the 2022 FIFA World Cup to Qatar and looking to avoid future scandal or at least temper criticism decided to create a Human Rights and Anti-discrimination policy accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
Implementation of such a policy has been spotty to put it mildly. When confronted with the invasion of Ukraine, FIFA decided the right course of action was to suspend Russia from competition.
That decision of course only came after the captains of Poland, Czechia, and Sweden refused to play Russia in World Cup qualification. It also helped that the United States and Europe had levied sanctions on Russia and that Asia, Africa, and South America were largely ambivalent about the conflict.
It did not take long for calls to suspend Israel to come to the fore following its brutal assault on Gaza. The death toll of 35,000 is made up of largely women and children. Around 150 members of the football family have been killed included prominent figures such as former National Team striker Mohammed Barakat and Olympic Team coach Hani Al-Masdar.
One of the enduring images of the genocide on Gaza has been the images of Yarmouk Stadium being used as a concentration camp with men stripped and blindfolded in front of one of the goals with an Israeli flag hung on the crossbar.
In February 2024, the West Asian Football Federation (WAFF) and Palestine decided to launch an appeal for sanctions to be passed on Israel.
This, of course, is not the first time PFA President Jibril Rajoub has tried to get Israel kicked out of FIFA. In the aftermath of the 2014 War on Gaza a vote was due to be held only for Rajoub to bizarrely withdraw the motion at the 11th hour.
A few years later, Palestine tried to appeal to FIFA to get settlement clubs banned from playing in the Israeli league. This would have followed the precedence set by Crimean clubs who were barred from playing in the Russian Football pyramid in the aftermath of the 2014 annexation of the peninsula.
FIFA hemmed and hawed for years, sent Tokyo Sexwale to investigate and then decided they would not intervene. Rajoub and the PFA appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and lost- and were required to pay FIFA’s legal fees as a result.
Given the previous ineptitude of Jibril Rajoub the effort to suspend Israel from World Football stood little chance. Even Rajoub himself seemed to be resigned to his fate as he was absent from most the FIFA Congress; instead deciding to travel with the Women’s National Football Team to Ireland.
It is not unheard of for FIFA to ban federations. It regularly does so when it feels government has interfered in the running of the sport. In the last decade, Indonesia and Kuwait were banned for this very reason.
In the early 1990s Mexico and Chile were banned from qualifying for the 1990 and 1994 World Cups following cheating scandals.
Also during that era, Yugoslavia was banned by both UEFA and FIFA after sanctions were passed against the government during the wars of secession.
Given the precedent of Yugoslavia and Russia the decision to ban Israel should be pretty straight forward. Israel is under investigation for acts of genocide at the International Court of Justice. The International Criminal Court is rumored to be considering arrest warrants for Israeli officials.
At the FIFA Congress earlier today, Gianni Infantino told the 211 member delegation in his address that “Football can only do so much.”
Given Infantino’s history it is not necessarily surprising. His reputation as an ardent supporter of Israel was evident to those in the IFA when he first ascended to the presidency of FIFA 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.”
Gianni Infantino found a way to help Israel this time around as well by simply kicking the can down the road. A final decision will be made after the “FIFA Council study the matter” that is expected on July 20th.
In all likelihood, FIFA will be hoping that the war comes to an end and that the problem disappears. If that doesn’t happen FIFA can put out a press release on a Saturday full of legalese expressing its inability to do anything.
Gianni Infantino will receive justified criticism for his hypocrisy but a good deal of that criticism should be reserved for PFA President Jibril Rajoub.
This is the third time in his tenure he asks FIFA to take action and he has never learned how to lobby the world’s governing body effectively; no surprise given his primary ambitions lie elsewhere.
If Rajoub and the PFA really want to suspend Israel from world football they should change tack and take their grievances to UEFA. Cobbling together a coalition of Ireland, the Nordic States, and Spain to take up the cause could be one way to bring about a different result. They could use people power in the democratic societies of Europe and have fans lobby their own FAs.
Hoping Gianni Infantino sees the light is not a viable strategy and the officials in the PFA should know that by now.
One gets the sense we will continue to hear about proposals to ban Israel but very little will come of them.
