Israel possible international suspension good news for Wales

FIFA President Sepp Blatter will hold crisis talks in Jerusalem later in an effort to avert a Palestinian bid to have Israel suspended from international football.

Tuesday 19th May 2015

The Palestinian Football Association is preparing to push a motion calling for Israel's suspension from world football's governing body at the FIFA annual congress later this month.

Mr Blatter will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this afternoon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday.

Last week FIFA issued a statement on behalf of Mr Blatter stating "any member association that is fulfilling its statutory duties should not be suspended. This would apply to the Israeli Football Association as long as they fulfil such duties".


But the head of the Palestinian FA, Jibril Rajoub, has outlined a number of complaints which he says demonstrate violations of FIFA's standards and ethics.

Mr Rajoub, a former security chief for the Palestinian Authority, says players and officials face unwarranted travel restrictions between Gaza and the West Bank, and international opponents are often blocked from entry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories without sufficient explanation.

He has also condemned the inclusion of teams from Israeli settlements located in the West Bank in Israeli football's lower leagues.

"I don't want to cause suffering, even to the Israeli footballers, but as long as their federation is defending, instead of fighting against the racism and restricting the Palestinian footballers' movements, they are part of the occupation," Mr Rajoub told Sky News.

"We are asking for free movement, no racism and to respect our jurisdiction within our territories," he added.

The Palestinian FA insists the aim of this move is to remove the political aspects from football, but Israel dismisses such assertions, claiming the complaints contain 'distortions' and are an attempt to politicise sport.

"We will not allow for Israel to be presented as a country which violated the agreements which it signed, and we will do all in our power to prevent any kind of ban," said the Chairman of the Israeli Football Association Ofer Eini, in comments to the Jerusalem Post.

"I certainly expect the FIFA president to speak out loud and clear on this matter and to prevent this malicious move," he added.

Israel's new sports minister, Miri Regev, described the Palestinian bid as "shameful", and expressed her confidence that Mr Blatter would remove the motion from the agenda

If presented to the FIFA congress, the motion would require a three quarter majority of FIFA's 209 members to pass.

Israel has been a member of UEFA since 1994, and is currently competing in the group stages for qualification to the European Championships.

The Palestinian national team competes in the Asian Football Confederation, and qualified for the Asia Cup for the first time earlier this year.

What a absalute bollocks politics and sport should be two different issues. FIFA should have no say in what happens in political disputes. Sepp Blatter is more corrupt than any politician anyway.

can't see how this could benefit Wales, even in the unlikely event of Sepp Blatter siding with the death cult. This Jibril character is a peach “until now we have not had nuclear weapons," he declared, "but in the name of Allah, if we had nuclear weapons, we’d be using them."

If Israel were to be suspended surely our 3 points away to Israel wouldn't stand and also who would fear Israel playing us at the CCS?

I am not sure that it would be good news for Wales to be honest - (from a purely qualification point of view)

If FIFA/UEFA debar Israel from any further participation then Israels result would either be expunged or there would be the possibility that UEFA could apply a 3-0 result to all past and future games involving Israel. If this happened the table would look like this:

1. 6 14 +17 Belgium
2. 6 14 +08 Wales
3. 6 12 +06 Cyprus
4. 6 11 +08 Bosnia
5. 6 06 -09 Andorra
6.10 Israel

...... and it all starts looking too close for comfort.....

FIFA President Sepp Blatter will hold crisis talks in Jerusalem later in an effort to avert a Palestinian bid to have Israel suspended from international football.

Tuesday 19th May 2015

The Palestinian Football Association is preparing to push a motion calling for Israel's suspension from world football's governing body at the FIFA annual congress later this month.

Mr Blatter will meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem this afternoon and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Wednesday.

Last week FIFA issued a statement on behalf of Mr Blatter stating "any member association that is fulfilling its statutory duties should not be suspended. This would apply to the Israeli Football Association as long as they fulfil such duties".

No politics in football please.I want us to deserve to qualify.Not by the back door.
But the head of the Palestinian FA, Jibril Rajoub, has outlined a number of complaints which he says demonstrate violations of FIFA's standards and ethics.

Mr Rajoub, a former security chief for the Palestinian Authority, says players and officials face unwarranted travel restrictions between Gaza and the West Bank, and international opponents are often blocked from entry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories without sufficient explanation.

He has also condemned the inclusion of teams from Israeli settlements located in the West Bank in Israeli football's lower leagues.

"I don't want to cause suffering, even to the Israeli footballers, but as long as their federation is defending, instead of fighting against the racism and restricting the Palestinian footballers' movements, they are part of the occupation," Mr Rajoub told Sky News.

"We are asking for free movement, no racism and to respect our jurisdiction within our territories," he added.

The Palestinian FA insists the aim of this move is to remove the political aspects from football, but Israel dismisses such assertions, claiming the complaints contain 'distortions' and are an attempt to politicise sport.

"We will not allow for Israel to be presented as a country which violated the agreements which it signed, and we will do all in our power to prevent any kind of ban," said the Chairman of the Israeli Football Association Ofer Eini, in comments to the Jerusalem Post.

"I certainly expect the FIFA president to speak out loud and clear on this matter and to prevent this malicious move," he added.

Israel's new sports minister, Miri Regev, described the Palestinian bid as "shameful", and expressed her confidence that Mr Blatter would remove the motion from the agenda

If presented to the FIFA congress, the motion would require a three quarter majority of FIFA's 209 members to pass.

Israel has been a member of UEFA since 1994, and is currently competing in the group stages for qualification to the European Championships.

The Palestinian national team competes in the Asian Football Confederation, and qualified for the Asia Cup for the first time earlier this year.

It should be titled... Seb blatter heads to Israel for bribe

Thought for a moment that this was the Eurovision song contest thread.