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Article

5 Jun 2017

Author:
The Guardian

Israel & Occupied Palestinian Territories: FIFA’s congress witnesses debates over concerns regarding Israeli clubs playing in settlements

Gianni Infantino rails at ‘fake news’ stories and ‘Fifa-bashing’, 11 May 2017

Gianni Infantino, the president of Fifa which has been devastated by an unprecedented series of multimillion dollar corruption scandals, has attacked “fake news” and alleged media “Fifa bashing” in his address to the congress in Bahrain on Thursday…The congress voted down by a large majority a passionately delivered request from the chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, for the Israeli FA to be given a six-month deadline to remove clubs from playing in settlements built on territories which the United Nations has declared are illegally occupied. Rajoub was opposed by Ofer Eini, chairman of the Israel FA, who argued the status of the territories, principally the West Bank, which were captured by Israeli forces during the 1967 war, is a political issue which Fifa cannot override itself. “Let’s leave it to the politicians,” Eini said. Infantino responded that a task force sent to Israel-Palestine to consider the issue has not fully reported yet, so the Fifa council will wait for its report and make a decision at a meeting in October.

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