Pressure is mounting on UEFA, European football’s governing body, to suspend Israel from international competitions, after a United Nations Independent Commission of Inquiry found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
UN experts, advocacy groups, and even European governments have demanded that UEFA follow the precedent set with Russia and exclude Israeli teams over the government’s countless war crimes in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Despite not being in Europe, Israel became a member of UEFA after several member states of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) boycotted Israel in the 1970s.
Many argue that UEFA's 2022 ban on Russian teams after the invasion of Ukraine sets a precedent for Israel, with calls for Israeli football clubs to be banned by UEFA and the Israeli national team to be banned by FIFA, including from the 2026 World Cup due to be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
“Sports cannot be treated like a parallel universe, as has been argued repeatedly in the case of Russia,” Hassan Imran, a legal advisor from Law for Palestine and PhD researcher at the University of Galway, told The New Arab.
“In fact, there’s an agreement called the International Convention against Apartheid in Sports (1977) that makes this link directly. In the case of South Africa’s apartheid regime, a sports boycott played an important role in leading to the end of apartheid.”
Such arguments reflect a growing legal push to hold football’s governing bodies accountable, with warnings that UEFA and FIFA cannot ignore their own human rights commitments.
“It would be good if FIFA/UEFA commitments to respecting human rights would entail that they exclude proactively federations whose home state is engaging in egregious human rights violations recognised by the international community,” Antoine Duval, a Senior Researcher at the TMC Asser Instituut in the Netherlands, told The New Arab.
“This, however, would require that they put in place specific rules and procedures to assess independently when such a line has been crossed,” he added.
Pressure intensifies on Israel
The most forceful intervention came from a group of UN special rapporteurs last month, who demanded that FIFA and UEFA suspend Israel for “massive human rights abuses” against Palestinians.
They stated that the federations’ own statutes, including prohibitions on racial discrimination and recognition of occupied territories, are being flagrantly violated.
And while calls for sports boycotts have intensified amid the genocide in Gaza, they are far from new, rooted in longstanding campaigns to raise awareness about the obstacles and abuses faced by Palestinian athletes.
“The recent rise of a global campaign to suspend Israeli participation in international sporting competitions (and football in particular) has its roots in organised efforts that date back many years,” Abdullah Al-Arian, an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and Al-Shabaka policy analyst, told The New Arab.
He added that Israel’s severe restrictions on movement for Palestinian athletes and clubs have severely disrupted Palestine’s football league.
“In response to the urgency of the situation, what was once a marginalised but steadily growing campaign to suspend Israel's participation in football competitions has become amplified in recent months, with governments and prominent figures backing the call for UEFA to suspend Israel following a two-year genocide,” said Dr Al-Arian.
Fan protests are also increasingly visible inside stadiums. PAOK FC supporters in Greece, for example, recently unfurled a giant banner reading “Stop genocide: show Israel the red card” during a match against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Prominent footballing figures have also added their voices. Former Manchester United star Eric Cantona, ex-Australia international Craig Foster, and high-profile pundit and ex-England international Gary Lineker have all at various points echoed calls for Israel’s suspension.
Palestinian football officials, such as Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, have repeatedly lobbied FIFA and UEFA to expel Israel, citing restrictions on Palestinian athletes and the presence of settlement-based clubs.
Israel has killed 808 athletes in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Football Association (PFA). One notable case was Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, who was killed by an Israeli attack in July while waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.
Palestinian football and other sports have long been marginalised by Israel, with top players targeted. In 2009, Israel arrested leading Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, who was travelling to Gaza from the West Bank.
After a hunger strike and physical and psychological torture in prison, he has since sought to raise awareness about the mistreatment of Palestinian footballers.
“Israeli sporting institutions and teams are direct contributors to the genocidal incitement against Palestinians, as seen clearly in the case of Macabi Tel Aviv, for instance,” said Hassan Imran.
“Furthermore, they are directly contributing to the economy of genocide and apartheid established by Israel. Many of these teams and their players are also based in illegal settlements.”
If UEFA were to exclude Israel, it could prompt other sports governing bodies, including FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), to reevaluate their positions.
While the IOC has suspended Russia, it has chosen not to take similar action against Israel, arguing that Israel has not breached the Olympic Charter, despite a UN report declaring that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Governments weigh in
Hypersensitive about its global image, Israel has sought to undermine calls for sporting suspensions and boycotts. The Israel Football Association had reportedly mobilised to block a UEFA Executive Committee vote on suspending Israel from European competition.
Israeli media quoted officials who said they were “working on all fronts” to recruit sporting and diplomatic allies, with Germany and Hungary expected to oppose the motion.
Still, the topic remains a matter of discussion in European politics. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has expressed criticism of Israel and proposed the possibility of excluding its athletes.
According to media reports, Germany Football Association (DFB) Vice President Hans-Joachim Watzke, who serves on the UEFA Executive Committee, is reported to be among a “large” majority supporting the suspension of Israel.
At the municipal level, Amsterdam’s city council has already voted to ban Israeli settlement-linked teams from playing in the city.
On the other hand, US pressure has reportedly delayed the issue among UEFA’s leadership, with a US State Department Spokesperson saying last week that "we will absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel's national football team from the World Cup”.
While governments are currently divided on whether to support suspending Israel, grassroots pressure is expected to continue.
For many campaigners, the comparison with Russia’s 2022 expulsion is unavoidable. Then, UEFA and FIFA acted within days of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, citing the need to protect the integrity of competitions.
Nathan Kalman-Lamb, associate professor at the University of New Brunswick, noted that while sanctions had little deterrent effect on Russia because of its relative power and independence within the global system, Israel is far more vulnerable.
“The same cannot be said of Israel, which is a client state of the global North, particularly the United States and Europe, and relies on that support to achieve its policy outcomes,” he told The New Arab.
Growing momentum for accountability
Beyond football, cultural spaces are now sites of pressure. Spain has also threatened a Eurovision boycott unless Israel is excluded, while artists and athletes across Europe have voiced support for sporting bans.
In September, more than 3,000 filmmakers, actors, and industry workers signed a pledge not to work with Israeli institutions, while over 400 artists have signed a “No Music for Genocide” pledge, urging the removal of their music on Israeli streaming platforms.
Meanwhile, Israeli researchers and universities have observed an unprecedented wave of boycotts from Western higher education institutions.
The sports boycott is but one component of the broader BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement, where grassroots activism gradually pressures cultural and corporate spheres to sever ties with Israel. And this grassroots activism has drawn comparisons to past precedents.
“I think we need to turn to the precedent of South Africa to see how effective sporting boycotts can be to place international pressure on a pariah state. If Israel were banned from global sport, it would provide cover for leaders in the global North to impose even more serious forms of sanctions, as sporting boycotts would function as a clear signifier of popular attitudes against the genocide,” said Dr Kalman-Lamb
“It is clear to me that global attitudes have shifted.”
For now, efforts to impose restrictions on Israeli sporting teams have faced roadblocks, after a previous UEFA vote scheduled for 23 September was postponed. Now, UEFA has reportedly paused its discussions to suspend Israel after Donald Trump announced a Gaza peace plan to end the war.
Such political actions can be seen, at least in part, as efforts to protect Israel from criticism. Yet pressure on UEFA to suspend Israel is unlikely to fade in the coming months, as Israel has stated it won’t withdraw troops from Gaza, and continues to intensify its system of apartheid in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, the growing momentum of grassroots and cultural boycotts could help keep the suspension debate alive.
“In time, efforts in these spheres do tend to impact the realm of the political, from changing the framing of the issues involved to underscoring the urgency for more immediate and tangible actions,” said Dr Al-Arian.
UEFA now stands at a crossroads: uphold its principles and risk political rupture or prioritise diplomacy and watch its credibility erode. Either way, the pitch has become another battleground over justice for Palestinians.
Jonathan Fenton-Harvey is a journalist and researcher who focuses on conflict, geopolitics, and humanitarian issues in the Middle East and North Africa
Follow him on Twitter: @jfentonharvey