During a visit to Israel, the chief of the football’s world governing body, FIFA, Sepp Blatter, said “football is more than a game. It has the power to connect people and to construct bridges,” as part of an attempt to broker a compromise which would fend off Palestinian attempts to ban Israel from FIFA and essentially exclude the country from the sport.
“We want to be in sport and not in politics, we could set a very dangerous precedent” by adopting the Palestinian proposal,’’ Blatter declared, adding that ‘’football shall unite people and not divide people.”
He reiterated his stance that the Israel Football Association has not violated any statutes and should therefore not be suspended from world soccer’s governing body, after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
“We should not come to one federation saying we will exclude them,” said the FIFA head.
Blatter said he will convey that message to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub when he meets with them in Ramallah on Wednesday in the hope of convincing them to drop their proposal to ban Israel.
The FIFA Council, which is composed of 209 member countries will vote on a proposal initiated by the Palestinian Football Association (FA) on 29 May which would suspend Israel from FIFA. A suspension would mean that Israel, which is affiliated to UEFA (the Union of European Football Associations), could no longer compete in the Euro 2016 qualifiers and its clubs would be barred from European competition.
The Palestinian FA claims that Israeli security restrictions limit the movement of Palestinian players and also opposes the participation of five clubs in the Israeli league which are located in the West Bank.
However, Israeli restrictions – mainly due to security reasons- have not prevented the Palestinian football league including teams from both the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, Israel’s football league includes numerous Arab players and officials at the highest level, while the national team is routinely represented by Arab and other minority players.
Netanyahu accused the Palestinians of attempting to politicize football. Netanyahu said, “Sport is a vehicle of goodwill among nations … You politicize it once with Israel, then you politicize it for everyone, and it will cause the deterioration of a great institution.”
Blatter said he will convey that message to the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub when he meets with them in Ramallah on Wednesday in the hope of convincing them to drop their proposal to ban Israel.
He revealed that Netanyahu said he supports the FIFA president’s proposal to hold a friendly match between the Israel and Palestinian teams at the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
“I’m coming here and going to your neighbors to try and construct bridges and to try and make sure football is not dividing but that football is uniting.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu is happy to organize a football match for peace between the national team of Israel and national team of Palestine and we would be happy to hold it in Zurich.”