Former South African cabinet minister and African National Congress (ANC) leader Tokyo Sexwale figured prominently in Friday’s political drama at international soccer’s FIFA conference in Zurich. Palestinian football chief Jibril Rajoub explicitly mentioned Sexwale as having played a critical role in his decision to withdraw the motion to have Israel expelled. And FIFA President Sepp…
The Palestinian soccer association withdrew its bid to have members of the FIFA world soccer body vote on whether to suspend Israel. The head of the Palestine Football Association, Jibril Rajoub, on Friday said in announcing the move: “I thank those who convinced me to drop the suspension [of Israel]. The German president [Angela Merkel]…
Rotem Kamer, chief executive of the Israel Football Association, told Israel’s Walla news website on Thursday that Israeli representatives were lobbying several soccer confederations, including UEFA, in Zurich hotels before an expected ballot on the issue at FIFA Congress on Friday. “Undoubtedly there is a lot of politics going on here, and unfortunately Israel’s position…
(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…
Israel’s top soccer administrators will meet FIFA President Sepp Blatter in Zurich on Wednesday in a late bid to avert a vote called by the Palestinians to suspend Israel from the world body. An official from Israel’s FA told Reuters that chairman Ofer Eini and chief executive Rotem Kamer would urge Blatter to use his…
The president of FIFA, the international governing body of soccer, expressed opposition to a Palestinian request to ban Israel from international competition. On Tuesday, Sepp Blatter told the French news agency AFP that “such a situation shall not occur at the FIFA congress because suspension of a federation for any reason is always something which…
Not every Jew in Rio cares about the World Cup. And some of them, the cariocas ( as the locals are known), are closest to the action. The Maracanã and adjacent Tijuca neighborhoods in Rio’s North zone are home to one of the largest concentrations of Jewish life in the city. There are more than…
The Palestinians will urge delegates at next month’s FIFA Congress to take sanctions against Israel while it continues to act “like the neighborhood bully”, FA president Jibril Rajoub told Reuters on Tuesday. Rajoub, speaking at the Soccerex Asian Forum being held on the banks of the Dead Sea, said the relationship between the two Middle…
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