Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

FIFA Ruling On West Bank Soccer Teams Delayed Again

(JTA) — The governing body of international soccer said it was “premature” to make a decision on the status of Israeli teams that play in the West Bank.

FIFA removed from its annual congress agenda a resolution that would require the teams to stop playing or be sanctioned, and which calls for Israel’s removal from FIFA. It marked the third straight year that the FIFA Congress has delayed making a ruling.

The FIFA Congress began its annual two-day meeting on Wednesday in Manama, Bahrain.

The six West Bank teams, which play in lower level leagues, are located in Maale Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Oranit and the Jordan Valley.

The Palestinians say this violates FIFA’s rules, which state that “Member associations and their clubs may not play on the territory of another member association without the latter’s approval.” They can still request that the resolution be put back on the agenda.

“It is not clear why the FIFA Council needs more than two years to decide whether or not to follow its own rules,” Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. “FIFA’s Congress on Thursday should order the IFA to stop sponsoring games in Israeli settlements. Continuing to sponsor games on stolen land is contrary to the human rights commitments FIFA so recently reaffirmed.”

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.