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The original was posted on /r/soccer by /u/Roller95 on 2026-03-25 11:57:25+00:00.
FIFA will not exclude football clubs in Israeli settlements on the West Bank from professional leagues. The Palestinian Football Association considers these clubs to be illegal. The world football governing body considers the issue too complex.
FIFA has decided not to take action against Israeli football clubs in the occupied West Bank. The world football governing body has therefore ruled that a complaint lodged by the Palestinian Football Association is unfounded.
FIFA has announced this in a press release. The organisation recently commissioned an internal investigation into the situation. As early as March 2024, at the FIFA Congress in Bangkok, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) raised the issue with FIFA that Israel is allowing football clubs from the West Bank to compete in Israeli leagues. The PFA called on FIFA to exclude those clubs from league participation, as they are reportedly located in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory.
However, according to the world football governing body, the legal status of the West Bank is too complex to take action against Israeli football clubs based in settlements in that area. Consequently, it was unclear to FIFA how it could apply its own regulations. “The definitive legal status of the West Bank remains unresolved and is a highly complex issue under international law,” the federation writes.
For almost two decades, the Palestinian Football Association has been exerting political pressure on FIFA to address this issue, although the Palestinians are virtually alone in this. The PFA invokes Articles 64 and 65 of the FIFA Statutes, which prohibit football activities by one country on the territory of another. At present, at least six clubs in settlements on the West Bank are participating in Israeli football leagues.
Last year, Susan Shalabi, vice-president of the Palestinian Football Association, said in an interview with this newspaper that FIFA must stop “passing the buck from one committee to another whilst Palestinian football is being wiped out”. She described FIFA’s approach as ‘surreal’ and accused the organisation of employing delaying tactics. “The evidence that Israel is flouting the FIFA statutes is plain for all to see.”
In February, FIFA President Gianni Infantino and his counterpart at the European football governing body UEFA, Aleksander Ceferin, were summoned to appear before the International Criminal Court over the matter. According to Palestinian human rights groups, both football officials are guilty of aiding and abetting war crimes by permitting football clubs to operate in the West Bank.
Human rights organisations have strongly criticised FIFA’s decision to take no action. Fairsquare described the organisation’s stance on this issue as ‘cowardly and insincere from the very start’. Steve Cockburn, deputy director of Amnesty International, said that FIFA “is failing to uphold its own regulations and is shamelessly disregarding international law”.
It is not only Fairsquare and Amnesty who maintain that it is crystal clear that the West Bank is Palestinian territory. Last year, a group of prominent academics, historians and legal experts, including professors of international law, wrote a letter to FIFA regarding matches in Israeli settlements on the West Bank. According to the signatories, who also included Israelis, this constituted an illegal occupation by Israel.
And so, in their view, FIFA did not need to concern itself at all with the precise legal status of the territory, but rather with the question of whether Israeli clubs in settlements should continue to play matches. In that case, it was clear to the letter’s authors that the clubs were in breach of Article 64 of the FIFA Regulations, concerning the prohibition of football activities on the territory of another country.
FIFA also investigated another allegation made by the Palestinian Football Association, namely that of racism in Israeli football stadiums. Last season, the number of racist incidents rose by 64 per cent compared with the previous season.
The PFA accused the Israeli Football Association (IFA) of turning a blind eye to Beitar Jerusalem, a club notorious for its far-right supporters. According to the PFA, Beitar fans have, among other things, made discriminatory remarks against Palestinians. In its complaint, the Palestinian Football Association also named the CEO of Israel’s top professional league and the president of Maccabi Netanya football club, both of whom openly support the war in Gaza.
FIFA did find the charges to be valid, although it remains to be seen how effective the imposed penalty will be. The IFA must pay a fine of nearly $300,000. The association must also display a ‘significant and clearly visible’ banner at three matches bearing the text ‘Football unites the world – No to discrimination’ and the IFA logo. And FIFA instructed the Israeli association to draw up a ‘prevention plan’.