FIFA’s silence on Israel is not neutrality, but a choice

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, FIFA acted within four days. It suspended all Russian teams from international competition, issued a statement of solidarity, and declared that “football is fully united here.” The speed was remarkable. The message was clear. Sport, FIFA told the world, has a conscience. That conscience, it turns out, has conditions.

More than two years into a war in Gaza that has killed over 72,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, FIFA has yet to suspend Israel from a single competition. Instead, it has imposed a $190,000 fine for racist violations, ordered a banner to be displayed at three home matches, and told the world that the status of the West Bank is “an unresolved and highly complex matter under public international law.” This is not neutrality. This is a choice dressed up as neutrality.

The International Court of Justice has declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory unlawful. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide. Dozens of international law scholars have confirmed that Israeli settlements in the West Bank violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions. At least six Israeli football clubs based in those illegal settlements continue to compete in Israeli leagues, in direct violation of FIFA’s own Article 64.2, which states that clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without its approval.

FIFA knows all of this. It conducted its own investigation. And then it did nothing, because it decided the situation was “too complex.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine was not complex for FIFA. South Africa’s apartheid regime was not too complex for international sports bodies to act against decades ago. Yugoslavia was sanctioned during the Balkan wars. But Palestinian land, Palestinian lives and Palestinian football, apparently, present a complexity that FIFA cannot navigate.

The reason for that complexity is not legal. It is political. The 2026 World Cup is being hosted by the United States, the same country whose State Department said it would “absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national soccer team from the World Cup.” FIFA President Gianni Infantino has built a close personal relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump, setting up a satellite FIFA office at Trump Tower in Manhattan and presenting Trump with a specially created peace prize at the World Cup draw ceremony. These are not the actions of a neutral governing body. These are the actions of an organization that has decided whose side it is on.

Critics will say that mixing sport and politics is wrong. But FIFA already mixed sport and politics the moment it acted against Russia and refused to act against Israel. The mixing happened. The only question is whose politics FIFA is choosing to serve.

Türkiye was the first UEFA member to call for Israel’s suspension from all football competitions publicly. The Turkish Football Federation sent that call to fellow national associations, and it was the right thing to do. Fifty professional athletes from across the world also signed an open letter arguing that sport cannot stay silent while civilians are killed on mass. Norway’s Football Federation donated its match profits against Israel to Gaza relief. These are not radical positions, but morally consistent actions.

What FIFA has given Palestine is a banner. What it gave Ukraine was solidarity.

The Palestinian Football Association filed its complaint in 2024 following proper FIFA procedures, waited patiently, and received a ruling that ignored the ICJ, flouted FIFA’s own statutes, and protected the very clubs that sit on stolen land. Amnesty International called the decision a disgrace. It was.

Football does not have to solve the conflict in the Middle East. But it does not have to reward those who violate international law either. FIFA has a choice. Right now, it is making the wrong one.

DAILYSABAH