Fuck FIFA and fuck UEFA.
and fuck Eurovision. (At least Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Netherlands and Slovenia are boycotting the latter. Guess soccer is too much profits??)
From Dave Zirin:
Big news no one is covering. My latest - along with Chuck Modiano - for The Nation Magazine "FIFA and UEFA Presidents Are Accused of Aiding Israel’s War Crimes". The complaint is being filed with the ICC in under two weeks. This does explain that FIFA Peace Prize a tad. Please click the link. UGLY ugly facilitation of Palestinian displacement and ethnic cleansing by FIFA during a time of genocide.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/fifa-uefa-war-crimes-israel/
This is Historic”: FIFA and UEFA Presidents Accused of Aiding Israeli War Crimes
By Dave Zirin and Chuck Modiano
While FIFA’s Gianni Infantino was last seen giving a made-up Peace Prize to Donald Trump, he and UEFA’s Aleksander Čeferin have been formally accused of aiding and abetting War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in a complaint to be filed with the ICC.
It is likely you heard the surreal news that FIFA President Gianni Infantino awarded Donald Trump a “Peace Prize” amid the backdrop of protest outside the Kennedy Center.xq
It’s less likely that you heard about a far more serious announcement the previous week: That Infantino will be formally accused of aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.
The ICC filing parties will include a group of Palestinian footballers, Palestinian clubs, land owners, advocacy groups Irish Sport for Palestine, Scottish Sport for Palestine, Just Peace Advocates, and an expert legal team.
According to a public statement from the filing parties, , Infantino, as well as Union of European Football Association president Aleksander Čeferin, are facing accusations that FIFA and UEFA funded settlement clubs—that is, football clubs that operate on land illegally seized from Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.“FIFA and UEFA permit these clubs to play in leagues organised by the Israel Football Association and host matches on the seized land,” the coalition contends. “They also provide financial and structural support to settlement clubs, some of which have played in the UEFA-organised competitions.”
The filing parties write that FIFA and UEFA’s financial support of these clubs legitimizes Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, which contributes to “the transfer of civilian population into occupied territories contrary to the Rome Statute art 8(2)(b)(viii)” and “also aids and abets apartheid (a crime against humanity pursuant to Rome Statute art 7(1)(j)).”
“Not only is this establishing clubs on land stolen from Palestinians,” Rebecca O’Keeffe, from Irish Sport for Palestine, told The Nation, “but it also means that Palestinians cannot access these clubs, cannot access playing, supporting, watching anything in these areas. And that is apartheid. UEFA and FIFA are breaching their own statutes against territorial integrity and jurisdiction.”
“This is historic,” continued O’Keeffe “This is the first time in history that leaders of the sports associations are being accused of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity. It shows these leaders of sports institutions that their decisions in relation to illegal settlement clubs may carry severe legal consequences. Hopefully it sets a much-needed precedent and also a first step towards imposing sanctions on the Israeli Football Association.”
The filing is historic, but it shouldn’t be necessary.
From 1961 to 1992, FIFA banned Apartheid South Africa from competing . More recently, after the invasion of Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA banned Russia from competing, prompting a chorus of critics—consideringefforts to ban Apartheid Israel dating back as far as 1958—to say: “Now do Israel.”
Then, one week after being accused of crimes against humanity, Infantino awarded Trump the bogus “Peace Prize.” These kinds of sycophantic displays—including when Trump bent over backwards to flatter Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman—will only spur more people to oppose him and his twisted ethics. Many of them are turning out to champion the formal ICC filing. “We have huge support for this initiative from the international sporting community,” said O’Keefe, “We have had new filing parties join every day and we just made the initiative public.”
O’Keeffe added that this support came despite widespread corporate media censorship of the ICC announcement, and that she remained hopeful that the international sporting community can play a key role as it once did to help end South African Apartheid. “FIFA is a cultural dominant force," said O’Keeffe. “It has commercial domination. FIFA earns more revenue than some countries earn GDP. We have to understand that.”
One can argue Trump understands this as much as anyone—which is why he always makes sure that Infantino has a place at his feet. And yet, their open embrace of each other makes the case against Infantino that much easier. He shamelessly genuflects before the man who armed the last year of the Gaza genocide and is currently complicit in its ethnic cleansing.
In other words, don’t expect Infantino to call many character witnesses.
https://www.thenation.com/article/society/fifa-uefa-war-crimes-israel/
