Soccer Boss Jets To Israel To Resolve Dispute With Palestinians
(JTA) — The world soccer federation’s boss, Sepp Blatter, is preparing to travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah in a bid to resolve a dispute over a Palestinian effort to have Israel banned from the association.
Blatter, president of the Switzerland-based FIFA, told reporters on Friday that he will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas when he arrives in the region next week, the Associated Press reported.
“Netanyahu would not receive the FIFA delegation if he would not be ready to make concessions,” Blatter said, referencing Palestinian conditions for dropping their national soccer federation’s demand that Israel be suspended for allegedly preventing Palestinian soccer players from playing internationally.
The Palestinians have threatened to push for a vote by FIFA’s member nations during an international conference by delegates on May 29. Blatter is on record as opposing the vote and Israel’s potential suspension for reasons he has said are political and unconnected to soccer.
Earlier this week, the president of Brazil’s soccer federation, CBF, which is one of the most prominent bodies on FIFA, also expressed his opposition to the vote.
“The CBF understands that soccer promotes peace and not discord, and should not be utilized for political ends,” CBF President Marco Polo del Nero said during a meeting in Sao Paulo with Eduardo Wurzmann, secretary of the CONIB federation of Jewish communities, CONIB said in a statement published Thursday.
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