It is being suggested that several individuals within UEFA’s executive body are in support of excluding Israel from competing in UEFA events, such as the Europa League, according to information obtained by the Associated Press.
This executive body serves as UEFA’s primary decision-making authority, overseeing all organizational operations. Its composition includes UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin along with 19 additional members chosen by election.
Among the members are prominent figures like Nasser Al-Khelaifi, who owns Paris Saint-Germain, Debbie Hewitt, the former chair of the FA, Dejan Savićević, a former Champions League victor, Moshe Zuares, the president of the Israeli FA, and Hans-Joachim Watzke, formerly the chief executive of Borussia Dortmund.
Israel World Cup hopes diminished with pending UEFA vote on potential exclusion
A significant number of the 20 committee members are anticipated to back a decision which would remove Israeli teams from competing internationally.
It is thought that FIFA is unlikely to follow suit, given the strong connections the organization has with Donald Trump’s United States government and the widely known opposition of the 79-year-old to the imposing of any form of sporting restrictions on Israel.
However, FIFA’s governing body contains eight UEFA members, leaving them in a position to make definitive decisions should a similar matter be proposed when the council convenes in Zürich in the coming week.
There are increasing calls from figures of authority to exclude Israel from global sporting events, which includes soccer.
Pedro Sánchez, the Prime Minister of Spain, has implored UEFA to enforce comparable sanctions against Israel, matching those placed upon Russia after their incursion into Ukraine in 2022.
This follows heightened international anxiety surrounding the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza as a result of Israeli armed operations in the region in their conflict with Hamas.
In addition, football leaders in Italy and Norway have voiced their misgivings concerning upcoming matches with Israeli teams. Both nations are scheduled to face Israel in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers the following month.
If UEFA imposes a ban, it would effectively eliminate Israel’s opportunities to qualify for next year’s World Cup, since the team wouldn’t be able to play their remaining scheduled matches. The nation has only made one appearance in the finals, back in 1970, and is presently positioned third within UEFA’s Group I.
Since their suspension, Russian teams have not been permitted back into FIFA or UEFA competitions.
The Times reports that “several European clubs [have] inquired with UEFA about the possibility of avoiding matches against Israeli opponents,” while fans of the Greek team PAOK Thessaloniki conducted demonstrations leading up to their Europa League contest against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
What implications will Aston Villa’s Europa League game against Maccabi Tel Aviv face?
Aston Villa is also slated to compete against Maccabi in the same competition later in the year, however, the match now faces uncertainty as UEFA is expected to vote on the removal of Israeli teams before the 6th of November.
The Europa League rules defined in Article 29.03 by UEFA reads: “Should a club be disqualified or removed from the tournament for any cause prior to the completion of all matches during the league stage, then outcomes from all matches played up to that point will continue to be recognized as legitimate.
“Upon completion of the league phase, a computation of scores will be necessary to reflect cancelled matches. Any club unable to participate in their scheduled match against a disqualified/withdrawn club will be granted the average points accumulation of all clubs within their respective seeding group when playing against clubs belonging to the same group as the disqualified/withdrawn club in matches held on home ground, if the match was originally planned to be at home, or in away matches if the match was to be played away.
“The league phase scores from every match played, including those obtained by clubs during games against a club before it faced disqualification/removal, will not be modified in any respect and shall all be factored into the calculation of the average score.”
