New world soccer boss says solving settlement clubs row ‘a priority’
FIFA head Gianni Infantino confident a solution can be found to issue of 6 Israeli teams that play in West Bank, after Palestinians cry foul
ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — FIFA president Gianni Infantino will make finding a solution to the bitter dispute over Israeli soccer clubs playing inside the West Bank a “priority,” he told AFP in an exclusive interview.
Six clubs in the Israeli leagues currently play in West Bank settlements, which are considered illegal under international law.
By allowing games to be contested there, FIFA is engaging in business activity that supports Israeli settlements, Human Rights Watch claimed in a recent report.
HRW said this endorsed the “theft” of Palestinian land and that the presence of Israeli clubs on the territory ran contrary to human rights commitments undertaken by football’s governing body.
“This is one of my priorities and our priorities. I have not yet gone into the area simply because the situation is such that at the moment the conditions are not there yet, but we’re working on it,” Infantino insisted to AFP.
Infantino said he had taken part Wednesday in a working session with South Africa’s Tokyo Sexwale, the chairman of the commission monitoring the problems affecting the development of soccer in Palestine.
“I just got out of a meeting with Mr. Sexwale to try to find a solution to this issue which should be a football question but has become a political issue, for which the world has not yet found a satisfactory solution,” said Infantino.
“We try to put politics aside and talk football and see how we can play the best conditions for football in this region.”
He added: “I am always confident that with dialogue, with discussion and by talking only of sport and by leaving out the politics, we can find a solution.”
The Israel Football Association argued recently that sport was being “dragged from the football field into a political one” but it had faith FIFA would deal correctly with the issue.
It needed to focus on “developing and maintaining the game as a bridge connecting people and not as a wall that divides them,” the association said.
However, Palestinian Football Association head Jibril Rajoub confirmed to AFP they had asked the Asian Football Confederation and European Union to take up the case and were hopeful FIFA’s executive committee would support them.
In theory, if the issue is not resolved, the Palestinian body could renew its efforts to expel or suspend Israel from FIFA.
Israel took control of the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War.
The Palestinians have long opposed the participation in the Israeli championships of the settlement clubs, which play in Israel’s third, fourth and fifth divisions.
There are two teams in Ariel and one each in Givat Ze’ev, Maale Adumim, Oranit and the Jordan Valley that are under dispute.
FIFA is expected to discuss the issue at an October 13-14 meeting of its executive committee.
