The West Asian sub-confederation joins the growing global calls to expel Israel from international football.
The West Asian Football Federation will meet with officials of the global and European football governing bodies in a bid to suspend Israel’s international participation over its genocidal war in Gaza.
The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) said on Saturday that it had reached an agreement with WAFF to “send messages and hold a meeting” with FIFA and UEFA to do so.
“The executive committee called for activating the available legal and human rights tools, and communicating with FIFA and UEFA to urge them to take a clear and strict position towards these violations, and to hold the parties responsible accountable,” the PFA said in a statement.
The statement came on the day representatives of 12 member countries gathered in the Jordanian capital of Amman for WAFF’s 15th ordinary general assembly.
Qatar Football Association’s Secretary-General, Mansoor Al-Ansari, led the country’s delegation at the meet, according to the Qatar News Agency.
WAFF currently consists of the founding members Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine, in addition to late joiners Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.
Highlighting the need to increase global pressure and advance urgent steps against Israeli aggression in Gaza, WAFF’s executive committee agreed on the step to “combat racist practices”, according to the PFA.
“The systematic restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on Palestinian sports have led to a complete paralysis of sports activities inside the occupied territories, especially in the Gaza Strip,” its statement added.
WAFF’s decision comes amidst growing calls to suspend the Israel Football Association for its complicity in the Gaza genocide.
A source working in European football told Doha News last week that calls to expel Israel did not just come from Qatar but from the wider international community, contrary to Israeli media reports.
“Blame Qatar, so everyone ignores the undeniable, glaring and universal facts,” the source told Doha News. “The whole international football community has been calling for action for years — national federations, clubs, players, coaches, fans.”
According to the PFA’s figures from August, Israel has killed more than 808 athletes in Gaza, with more than 421 of them being footballers. Its headquarters was one of 288 sports facilities destroyed by Israel’s relentless bombing in the beseiged enclave.
“Sports facilities have been deliberately destroyed, and athletes have been prevented from moving and participating in regional and international tournaments in a flagrant violation of relevant international laws and conventions,” PFA’s statement on Saturday added.
Football’s global governing body has repeatedly deferred Palestine’s motion to ban Israel from the international arena, despite independent assessments concluding that it had violated numerous FIFA statutes.
Israel has killed at least 66,000 Palestinians, mainly women and children, in Gaza since October 7, 2023, with thousands of others still trapped under the rubble or missing. Its continued blockade since March has subjected the enclave to a famine that has caused hundreds of deaths due to hunger.
The United Nations recently termed it a genocide.
Following the UN advisory experts’ calls to slap sporting sanctions on Israel, Sky News reported last week that the U.S. government is intending to intervene directly should FIFA make such a move.
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