At least six settlement clubs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are playing in Israeli leagues - violating international law and FIFA’s own rules

‘It is nothing short of a disgrace that the Israeli Football Association is still allowing clubs from these settlements to keep playing in its leagues’ - Agnès Callamard

Amnesty International has written to FIFA and UEFA calling on them to suspend the Israeli Football Association from their tournaments until it excludes clubs based in illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory from continuing to play in Israel’s football leagues.

The call comes ahead of a FIFA Council meeting on 2 October, while the Palestinian Football Association continues to await a response to its formal complaint submitted in March 2024.

Suspending the Israeli Football Association would bar Israeli national and club teams from international competitions, cut off FIFA and UEFA funding, and revoke the Israeli Football Association’s membership and voting rights until it brings its activities into line with international law and FIFA’s own statutes.

Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:

“As Israel’s national football team gears up for World Cup qualifiers against Norway and Italy, Israel continues to perpetrate genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“Over 800 athletes, players and sports officials are among the more than 65,000 people Israeli forces have killed in a deliberate campaign of wholesale devastation, forced displacement and starvation of civilians.

“At the same time, Israel is brutally expanding its illegal settlements and legitimising illegal outposts in the West Bank as part of its unlawful occupation of Palestinian Territory. It is nothing short of a disgrace that the Israeli Football Association is still allowing clubs from these settlements to keep playing in its leagues, after multiple warnings for more than a decade.

“Football is not played in a vacuum. FIFA and UEFA must accept their responsibilities under international law and stop letting Israeli national teams and club sides participate in international or European football until the Israeli Football Association suspends all clubs from illegal settlements.” 

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) issued an advisory opinion that declared that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is unlawful and must be rapidly terminated. It also noted that there is an obligation on states “to abstain from entering into economic or trade dealings with Israel concerning the OPT or parts thereof which may entrench its unlawful presence in the territory”. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967 has concluded that the ICJ’s conclusions “place on corporate entities a prima facie responsibility to not engage and/or to withdraw totally and unconditionally from any associated dealings” that entrench Israel’s unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  

Israel failed to meet the 12-month timeline that the UN General Assembly set in a September 2024 resolution to withdraw from the Occupied Palestinian Territory in compliance with the ICJ advisory opinion.

In September, Amnesty named 15 companies it has identified as contributing to Israel’s unlawful occupation, its apartheid against Palestinians whose rights it controls, or its ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

FIFA and UEFA have both provided funding for Israeli teams to play in international and European tournaments, meaning they may also be contributing to the expansion of illegal settlements, and therefore Israel’s human rights violations.