Europe: 66 EU parliamentarians urge FIFA to ban Israeli settlement clubs

It is interesting to see that the priority of 66 Euro lawmakers is to punish Israeli football clubs while the European Union is facing disaster as MP Guy Verhofstadt put it - and he is not the only one who thinks so too: “Stop sleepwalking to a disaster. Either the EU will change, or it will die. The Council needs to recognise that citizens are not against Europe, but against this Europe.” 

From the Times of Israel:

A group of European lawmakers on Friday urged soccer’s world governing body FIFA to ban Israeli clubs based in settlements in the West Bank.

In a letter to FIFA president Gianni Infantino, 66 MEPs identified five clubs based in settlements and insisted they either move inside Israel’s internationally accepted borders, or be excluded from the Israel Football Association.

“I am not asking FIFA to suspend Israel, we just want it to apply the rules,” said Scottish National Party MEP Alyn Smith, who launched the appeal.

“Allowing Israel to use football as an instrument of territorial expansion in the West Bank politicizes football — and this is not acceptable,” he said in a statement.

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