{"id":2967,"date":"2025-09-27T06:38:05","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/27\/turkiye-group-of-athletes-call-on-fifa-uefa-to-ban-israels-football-team\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T06:38:05","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T06:38:05","slug":"turkiye-group-of-athletes-call-on-fifa-uefa-to-ban-israels-football-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/27\/turkiye-group-of-athletes-call-on-fifa-uefa-to-ban-israels-football-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkiye, group of athletes call on FIFA, UEFA to ban Israel\u2019s football team"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>Pressure is growing on football\u2019s governing bodies to take action against Israel\u2019s national football team over the war on Gaza.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Turkiye has become the first member of European football\u2019s governing body, UEFA, to publicly call for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/26\/us-to-fight-efforts-to-ban-israels-football-team-from-world-cup-2026\">Israel\u2019s suspension from all football competitions<\/a>, as pressure ramps up on the sport\u2019s organising bodies to take action over the ongoing war on Gaza in advance of the World Cup 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Turkish Football Federation President Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu on Friday sent a letter to international football leaders urging that \u201cit is now time for FIFA and UEFA to act\u201d \u2013 referring to the world and European football governing bodies.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/8\/13\/uefa-unfurls-gaza-related-plea-banner-after-palestinian-tribute-fallout\">UEFA unfurls Gaza-related plea banner after Palestinian tribute fallout<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2025\/9\/16\/israel-killed-10-children-from-this-football-youth-academy-in-gaza-2\">Israel killed 10 children from this football youth academy in Gaza<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2025\/9\/26\/us-to-fight-efforts-to-ban-israels-football-team-from-world-cup-2026\">US to fight efforts to ban Israel\u2019s football team from World Cup 2026<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>\u201cDespite positioning themselves as defenders of civic values and peace, the sporting world and football institutions have remained silent for far too long,\u201d Haciosmanoglu said, according to Turkiye\u2019s state-run Anadolu news agency.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGuided by these values, we feel compelled to raise our deep concern regarding the unlawful (and more importantly, completely inhumane and unacceptable) situation being carried out by the State of Israel in Gaza and its surrounding areas,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>UEFA is moving towards a vote on whether to suspend Israel, whose men\u2019s football team is in the middle of attempting to qualify for next year\u2019s World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>The 20-member UEFA ruling committee is expected to secure a majority <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/8\/20\/italian-football-coaches-seek-suspension-of-israel-world-cup-ties\">to exclude Israel<\/a> from games if a vote is called.<\/p>\n<p>Unease has grown regarding the apparent double standard of Israel\u2019s treatment and that of Russia, whose national team was banned by both UEFA and FIFA in 2022 following Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Also on Friday, a coalition of 48 high-profile professional athletes called on UEFA to suspend Israel from all football competitions over its assault on Palestinians in Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>France midfielder Paul Pogba and English cricketer Moeen Ali were among 48 signatories to a statement calling for Israel\u2019s suspension, published under the banner of Athletes 4 Peace.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs professional athletes of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs, we believe sport must uphold the principles of justice, fairness, and humanity,\u201d read the statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe, the signatories of Athletes 4 Peace, call upon UEFA to immediately suspend Israel from all competitions until it complies with international law and ends its killing of civilians and the widespread starvation,\u201d the athletes added.<\/p>\n<p>The statement also cited the death last month of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/video\/newsfeed\/2025\/8\/14\/family-of-gaza-football-legend-suleiman-al-obeid-mourn-his-death\">Suleiman al-Obeid<\/a> \u2013 known as the Palestinian Pele \u2013 who, according to the Palestine Football Association, was killed when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.<\/p>\n<p>Israel has been a full member of UEFA since 1994 after being expelled from the Asian Football Confederation two decades earlier in a vote initiated by Kuwait and backed by other Arab countries.<\/p>\n<p>It has only qualified for one men\u2019s World Cup \u2013 the 1970 competition held in Mexico \u2013 when it was knocked out in the group stage without winning a game.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, the US Department of State said it would \u201cabsolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel\u2019s national football team\u201d from next year\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Though UEFA is able to stop Israel from participating in games related to European competitions, it cannot stop Israel from competing in FIFA-run World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n<p>The head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has warm relations with President Donald Trump \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/sports\/2025\/4\/11\/fifa-president-infantino-promises-the-world-will-be-welcomed-as-club-worl\">visiting the US leader<\/a> at the White House in March \u2013 and so is seen as unlikely to back a move to suspend Israel.<\/p>\n<p>Infantino will chair a meeting of FIFA\u2019s ruling council next Thursday in the Swiss city of Zurich.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pressure is growing on football\u2019s governing bodies to take action against Israel\u2019s national football team over the war on Gaza. Turkiye has become the first member of European football\u2019s governing body, UEFA, to publicly call for Israel\u2019s suspension from all football competitions, as pressure ramps up on the sport\u2019s organising bodies to take action over &#8230; <a title=\"Turkiye, group of athletes call on FIFA, UEFA to ban Israel\u2019s football team\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/09\/27\/turkiye-group-of-athletes-call-on-fifa-uefa-to-ban-israels-football-team\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Turkiye, group of athletes call on FIFA, UEFA to ban Israel\u2019s football team\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}