Israel football ban: Uefa vote and Gaza conflict impact explained

Since the United Nations commission of inquiry formally declared Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, there have been growing calls for the country to be suspended from international football competitions.

Israel's national team is currently participating in European qualifiers for next summer's men's Fifa World Cup, while Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv is playing in the Europa League.

The BBC has been told by a senior figure at one football federation that many nations are pushing for a vote on whether to throw Israel out of European football, and that the leadership of governing body Uefa wants to act.

On Friday the Turkish FA demanded Israel be banned from football, and a group of 48 athletes signed a joined letter calling for the country's suspension.

The Times reports that a vote could come as soon as next week and that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been campaigning against it., external

Meanwhile, the US State Department has vowed to resist any attempt to bar Israel from potentially qualifying for a World Cup which will be held mostly on American soil.

So how exactly could a vote work, and what repercussions could it have?

Decisions on important matters in European football are made by the executive committee of Uefa, the governing body for the continent.

The executive committee – a group of 20 officials from its different member states – controls Uefa, overseeing the management of its governance, finances and rules.

The group is headed by president Aleksandr Ceferin, who has been in post since succeeding Michel Platini in 2016.

Sixteen members are then elected to their positions by vote, while two represent the European Club Association (ECA), and one represents the European Leagues organisation.

Emergency meetings of the group are not necessarily announced to the public, and even once the result of a vote is declared, Uefa does not typically reveal which members voted which way.

In order for any decision to be voted through by the executive committee, a simple majority of 11 out of 20 members is needed.

In reality, Uefa typically undertakes formal votes of its executive committee only when it knows there will be a clear outcome in one direction or another.

Decisions taken by the group are effective immediately, meaning a decision to suspend Israel would in theory be implemented straight away.

As Uefa governs the World Cup qualifying process for Europe, Israel would effectively be barred from next summer's tournament.

The Israeli FA did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by BBC Sport.

The 16 executive committee members who are elected come from a range of countries, and represent their national football federations. One, Moshe Zuares, is an Israeli who was elected this year.

Among the others four come from countries - Spain, Norway, Albania and Armenia - whose governments have issued pro-Palestine messages. However, apart from Turkey, no other football associations have publicly expressed a position on Israeli teams' participation in international football.

The head of the ECA, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, is a very powerful figure. He is also president of European champions Paris St-Germain, and chairperson of BeIN Media Group, one of Uefa's most lucrative broadcasting partners.

Al-Khelaifi is a former tennis player from Qatar, which has criticised what it called "reckless Israeli behaviour" after Israel's forces carried out a strike on senior Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha, this month. Al-Khelaifi has made no public comment about Israel's participation in competitions.

His fellow ECA representative Miguel Angel Gil Marin, CEO of Atletico Madrid, is Spanish, while European Leagues representative Claudius Schafer is Swiss.

Any decision to suspend Israel taken by Uefa would need to be ratified by global governing body Fifa afterwards.

When Russia was thrown out of football competitions in 2022, Fifa and Uefa announced the decision in a joint statement just four days after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began.

But there is a possibility of disagreement.

Earlier this year Fifa president Gianni Infantino described his relationship with US president Donald Trump as "absolutely crucial".

Infantino even invited Trump to be part of the Club World Cup trophy presentation in July, and has left a replica of the competition's trophy sitting in the White House's Oval Office.

The Trump administration is vehemently pro-Israel, strongly criticised the decision of the UK and others to recognise a Palestinian state, and is now making clear its opposition to any plan to bar Israel from the World Cup.

The BBC has asked Fifa whether it would ratify a Uefa vote to suspend Israel but has not received a response.

Uefa has previously resisted calls to bar Israel from its competitions, with Ceferin saying in August that he is generally opposed to bans.

"I think that all athletes should have the opportunity to compete and that other things should be handled differently," the Slovenian said.

But the organisation was heavily criticised - including by Liverpool star Mohamed Salah - in the summer when it posted about Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid on social media but did not refer to the circumstances surrounding his death.

The Palestinian Football Association (PFA) had said he had been killed in an Israeli attack while waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.

The PFA has also said that the number of footballers killed or who have died from starvation in Gaza totals 421, including 103 children.

Subsequently, Uefa placed banners on the pitch before the Super Cup match between Paris St-Germain and Tottenham in Italy in August reading 'stop killing children' and 'stop killing civilians'.

The Turkish FA has now become the first Uefa member to publicly demand Israel's suspension.

"Despite positioning themselves as defenders of civilized values and peace, the sports world and football institutions have remained silent for too long," said Turkish FA president Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu.

"It is time for Fifa and Uefa to take action. Israel must be banned from all sporting competitions immediately."

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,502 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Former Arsenal and current Real Betis defender Hector Bellerin has been outspoken on the Israel-Gaza conflict, and told the BBC he feels the rules have not been equally applied to Russia and Israel.

"I just don't understand how when the war between Russia and Ukraine started, Russia couldn't compete in any sports, and now the measurement is a different bar for what is happening with Israel," the Spaniard said. "I don't think that is right.

"There are kids and families that are being bombed every day. I wish that all my colleagues, all the organisations in football would step forward, because football most of the time is the place where people look."

But others maintain that Israel should keep their place in Uefa competitions.

"For either Uefa or Fifa to remove Israel from football competitions would be a betrayal of Jewish communities all over the world, and an act of vilification, demonisation and de-legitimisation of Israel," said Simon Johnson, ex-director of corporate affairs at the FA and former chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council.

"It would do nothing to end the war or bring peace to the region."

Pressure seems to be building towards a formal decision which, whichever way it goes, could have seismic consequences far beyond football.

Additional reporting by Shamoon Hafez.

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