GENEVA (AP) \u2014 European soccer body UEFA is moving toward a vote to suspend its member federation Israel over the war in Gaza, people familiar with the proposal told The Associated Press on Thursday.<\/p>\n
A majority of UEFA\u2019s 20-member executive committee is expected to support any vote in favor of suspending Israeli teams from international play, two sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.<\/p>\n
Such a step would prevent Israeli national and club teams from playing in international competitions including next year\u2019s World Cup. Israel\u2019s men\u2019s team is set to resume its World Cup qualifying campaign in two weeks with away games against Norway and Italy.<\/p>\n
It is unclear whether world soccer body FIFA will support excluding Israel given the close relations between FIFA\u2019s leader, Gianni Infantino, and President Donald Trump. <\/p>\n
The Trump administration\u2019s support to secure the World Cup, and process visas for players, officials and potentially hundreds of thousands of visiting fans, is seen as key to FIFA delivering a successful tournament in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next year.<\/p>\n
A State Department spokesperson said it will work to stop any efforts that tried to ban Israel\u2019s team from the World Cup.<\/p>\n
FIFA\u2019s ruling council is scheduled to meet in Zurich next week. The 37-member council includes eight from UEFA.<\/p>\n
FIFA declined to comment on Thursday. Infantino is based this week at FIFA\u2019s satellite office in Trump Tower in Manhattan while attending events on the fringes of the United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n
Calls to exclude Israel from soccer and other sports have increased<\/a> in recent weeks amid an outcry over the humanitarian toll of its military campaign in Gaza. Last week Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez said Israel should be banned from international sports events just like Russia, which was sidelined after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n Earlier this week seven independent experts working with the U.N. Human Rights Council urged FIFA and UEFA<\/a> to suspend Israel from international competitions.<\/p>\n UEFA and its president Aleksander Ceferin signaled a tougher view on Israel last month when banners saying \u201cStop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians\u201d were placed on the field in front of the Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham teams ahead of the Super Cup game in Udine, Italy.<\/p>\n The discussion about whether to ban Israel from international sports comes as Israel faces increasing criticism and isolation over its military campaign, launched in response to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.<\/p>\n Last week, Israel was accused of committing genocide in Gaza<\/a> by an inquiry commission commissioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council. <\/p>\n Israel\u2019s sports and culture minister, Miki Zohar, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel\u2019s soccer federation, Moshe Zuares, have been working \u201cintensively behind the scenes\u201d to block efforts to oust Israel from UEFA, Zohar\u2019s office said Thursday. \u201cThe right step now is to act responsibly with the professionals and not to make statements, and this is how all the parties involved in the efforts are acting. We will address this later.\u201d<\/p>\n The decision to ban Russia in 2022 was partly driven by a swath of UEFA member federations refusing to play scheduled games against Russian opponents. No national or club team in Europe has so far refused to play an Israeli opponent, though soccer leaders in Norway and Italy have publicly expressed their unease<\/a> in recent weeks. <\/p>\n The Norwegian soccer federation also pledged to give its profits from ticket sales for the Oct. 11 game in Oslo to humanitarian work in Gaza by Doctors Without Borders.<\/p>\n Both Italy\u2019s Gabriele Gravina and Lise Klaveness of Norway are elected members of the UEFA executive committee which could vote on suspending Israel. Zuares, the Israeli soccer federation president, is also on the panel as is Nasser Al-Khela\u00effi, a member of the Qatari government who is president of European champion Paris Saint-Germain.<\/p>\n Israel enraged Qatar, an influential U.S. ally that has been a key mediator throughout the war, with a Sept. 9 airstrike targeting Hamas leaders<\/a> in Doha, the Qatari capital.<\/p>\n