Legality of UEFA football clubs in Israeli settlements

5.10.2017

Question for written answer E-006285-17
to the Commission
Rule 130
Alyn Smith (Verts/ALE)

The Israel Football Association, a member of UEFA, includes six football clubs that are based in Israel’s settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. However, according to the UEFA statutes, ‘a Member Association, or its affiliated leagues and clubs, may neither play nor organise matches outside its own territory without the permission of the relevant Member Associations.’

Accordingly, UEFA and FIFA prohibited the participation of football clubs from Crimea in the Russian league in 2014. Yet UEFA and FIFA have so far failed to apply the same rule to Israeli settlement clubs.

According to the Israeli newspaper ONE, UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin worked with the Israel Football Association to postpone any decision on the matter.

The EU does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and considers its settlements illegal under international law. They also lead to large-scale human rights violations.

1. Will the EU raise the issue in its bilateral dialogue with UEFA, which is supposed to address matters of sport integrity and human rights?

2. Does the EU consider the Israel Football Association’s activities in the settlements to be in line with EC law applicable to the UEFA and its member associations?