FIFA defers decision on Israel suspension

ZURICH, Switzerland (AFP) — World football’s governing body International Football Federation (FIFA) gave no verdict either way on a Palestinian request to suspend Israel, but instead launched an investigation into allegations of discrimination.

At FIFA’s congress in Bangkok in May, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) called for its Israeli counterpart to be suspended and for Israeli teams to be banned from FIFA competitions.

The PFA claims that the Israel Football Association (IFA) has broken FIFA discrimination rules.

The accusation came seven months into Israel’s war with Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza.

FIFA was initially set to hold an extraordinary session of its ruling council before July 20 to review independent legal analysis and decide how to proceed.

However, the deadline was pushed back to give the legal experts more time to complete a report.

At the organization’s headquarters in Zurich on Thursday, the FIFA Council adopted the recommendations and conclusions reached in the legal analysis.

It decided that its disciplinary committee would be mandated to investigate the alleged offense of discrimination raised by the PFA.

Meanwhile, the FIFA governance, audit and compliance committee “will be entrusted with the mission to investigate — and subsequently advise the FIFA Council on — the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based in the territory of Palestine.”

FIFA president Gianni Infantino said in a statement that “the FIFA Council has implemented due diligence on this very sensitive matter and, based on a thorough assessment, we have followed the advice of the independent experts.”

“The ongoing violence in the region confirms that, above all considerations... we need peace.”

“As we remain extremely shocked by what is happening, and our thoughts are with those who are suffering, we urge all parties to restore peace to the region with immediate effect.”