According to local media reports on Friday, Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu – president of the Turkish Football Federation (TFF) – has sent a formal request to FIFA, UEFA and all the associations of the world to stop Israel from playing international football.
The appeal comes as UEFA prepares for an emergency vote on Israel’s suspension next week, with more than a handful of federations under pressure to act politically.
In his message, Haciosmanoglu blamed the football world authorities for “silencing too much time” in the case of the Gaza war. He portrayed Israel’s doing as “being inhumane and unacceptable in every possible way”, emphasizing that the sports world must be the last to abandon its rights of peace and civic values.
The demand follows a report from the U.N. Commission of Inquiry earlier this week that indicted Israel for genocide in Gaza and called for its exclusion from global football. According to Reuters, Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous” and insisted that its military operations target Hamas militants only.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reports that over 65,000 people have died as a result of the Israeli offensive after the attack led by Hamas on 7 October 2023, that killed 1,200 Israelis.
Though the pressure is increasing, the Israel Football Association (IFA) said to Reuters that they had not been informed that a suspension was going to happen anytime soon and that the national team was still preparing for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Since 1991, Israel has been playing within UEFA and after being expelled from the AFC in 1974, it became a full member of UEFA in 1994.
