Late on Thursday night, Fifa finally published its report dealing with a complaint made by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) almost a full two years ago. It concerned accusations of three separate breaches of Fifa statutes by the Israeli Football Association (IFA), brought to the attention of the world governing body at the 74th Fifa Congress in Bangkok in May 2024. The report runs just shy of 20,000 words and is comprehensive, sober and forensic.
It is also, at times, genuinely mind-boggling. Like all global behemoth organisations, Fifa tends to go one of two ways in its communications strategy – either it avoids saying anything or it swaddles its words in layers of legal blanketing until all meaning is suffocated. They went for door number two in this case but once you’re able to sit down and strip it all back, what it reveals about the organisation is damning.
The PFA made a series of allegations, which were eventually whittled down to three for the Fifa Disciplinary Committee to consider. The first was that the IFA has repeatedly failed to take action against racism and discrimination and Israeli football officials indicated strong support for genocide in Gaza on social media. The second was regarding Beitar Jerusalem FC and the IFA’s toleration of repeated racist incidents at that club.
The final one deals with discrimination against Palestinian footballers by Israeli forces, particularly around the West Bank and Gaza. The official allegation is worth stating in full, for complete clarity. “That over 300 Palestinian athletes, including 209 footballers, have been killed by the IDF, and many more are prevented from training or travelling due to restrictions, including the Gaza blockade. Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers and reservists regularly compete in international sports events.”
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Investigating the complaints and producing the report was a mammoth task and one for which Fifa ought to be properly commended. There was endless back and forth between the committee and the Israeli FA, whose legal challenges at every turn are documented in the report. You don’t have to do much reading between the lines to see the committee running out of patience with the IFA’s various obfuscations and lack of engagement.
Still, in the end, the committee was able to come to its conclusions. It found against the IFA in all three allegations. It was clear in its language too. Israeli football officials had made statements online that, “politicize (sic) football, glorify military action, and disregard the humanitarian principles that the IFA is mandated to uphold”. On Beitar Jerusalem, the IFA’s failure to take meaningful action against “a club whose supporters have engaged in persistent and well-documented racist behaviour constitutes a clear violation”.
On the final count, regarding overt discrimination against Palestinian footballers, again, it’s worth including the full text. “The Committee finds that it documents a pattern of systemic exclusion of Palestinians from football stadiums and facilities located in Israeli settlements in the West Bank … These areas are under full Israeli military and administrative control and are subject to a regime of movement restrictions that disproportionately and discriminatorily affect Palestinians.”
This portion of the report is particularly scathing of the Israeli FA. It finds the settlements in the West Bank are designated as “closed military zones”, resulting in “the exclusion of Palestinians from participation as players, spectators, and youth participants, effectively barring them from the footballing ecosystem in these regions”.
It couldn’t be more clear with its verdict on all of this.
“The Committee deems that such exclusion constitutes direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of national origin and ethnicity. The IFA, as the governing body responsible for football activities in these territories, bears legal responsibility for the discriminatory effects of these policies. Its failure to challenge, mitigate, or even acknowledge the exclusion of Palestinians amounts to institutional complicity in a system of segregation.”
It goes further, not alone finding the IFA culpable for discrimination but also of bringing the sport itself into disrepute. It says the Israeli FA “has committed multiple breaches of its obligations as a Fifa member association … and has damaged public trust in the sport’s ability to serve as a force for peace and inclusion”.
Rounding off the section, the report readies itself to lay out the consequences for the IFA’s wide array of transgressions. “In light of the above, the Committee concludes that the breaches committed by the IFA are of such gravity and seriousness as to merit severe and exemplary sanctions.”
You may be aware by now of what those severe and exemplary sanctions amount to. Fifa fined the Israeli FA 150,000 Swiss Francs (around €165,000). On top of which, the IFA must display a banner with the slogan “Football Unites the World – No to Discrimination” and its next three home games, “preferably in front of the main TV broadcasting position”.
And … that’s it. That’s the punishment for a finding of, in Fifa’s own words, discrimination, segregation and bringing the game into disrepute. A risible fine and a banner, preferably – but not mandatorily, it seems – one the TV cameras might see. No match bans, no games played behind closed doors, no suspensions from Fifa competitions. Not even the threat of those kinds of sanctions should any future incidents occur.
The dereliction of duty on Fifa’s part here is genuinely jaw-dropping. They spent two years digging deeper into the discriminatory practices of one of their constituents than they have ever dug before. They compiled a colossal report that was unequivocal in its criticism and utterly unsparing in its condemnation. But the words mean nothing if they don’t come with a penalty that makes the offender think twice about offending again.
This isn’t about Israel and Palestine. Any two countries could be involved here and the issue would still stand. You’re either allowed to behave with impunity as a national football federation tolerating racism and segregation or you’re not.
No, this is about Gianni Infantino’s Fifa, swaggering around the globe like a player on the world stage, throwing out bromides about the uniting power of football that end up being meaningless when it comes to the crunch. It’s about an organisation that talks big about standing up for the disempowered but quivers in the face of making an actual difference. A shower of spivs and cowards.
For shame, Fifa. For shame.
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