Soccer fans around the world call on FIFA, UEFA to 'show Israel the red card'
As Israel prepares to play 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, its soccer teams are facing calls to be banned from all competitions.
Soccer fans around the world have been chanting, unfurling banners and holding red placards demanding FIFA and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) "Show Israel the Red Card."
"It's amazing that it's reaching this far," Palestinian content creator Ahmed Bdair told CBC News. "All this kind of stuff has, honestly, pleasantly surprised me."
The campaign started on Feb. 12 during a Champions League game in Scotland. Fans of Celtic FC expressed support for Palestinians and called on FIFA and UEFA to "show Israel the red card."
According to the organizers, the protest was motivated by Israel's ongoing attacks on Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
"Israel is committing genocide and ethnic cleansing; it is practicing apartheid; and it is illegally occupying Palestinian territory. All of this is in breach of international law," the Green Brigades, Celtic's ultras fan group, said in a leaflet prior to the match.
"We call on football fans around the world who value life, humanity, dignity, freedom, peace and justice to be courageous and to use your platform to stand against the crimes of Israel and stand with Palestine," the group continued.
The campaign has since spread to countries like Italy, Spain, Belgium, Malaysia, Tunisia, Brazil and Chile, among others.
FIFA and UEFA did not respond to CBC's repeated requests for a comment.
The protests come after Israel has killed nearly 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza in their post-Oct. 7 operations, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Among the Gaza death toll are at least 734 Palestinian athletes and scouts, including 382 soccer players, according to the Palestinian Football Association (PFA). The Israeli military says it has killed at least 20,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel where around 1,200 were killed and another 250 were taken hostage according to Israeli tallies.
We won't be deterred: Israeli soccer body
In a statement to CBC News, the Israel Football Association (IFA) said its teams and athletes will not be deterred from participating in global sports events.
"We encounter quite a few incidents of ignorance, self-righteousness, and abysmal hatred that ostensibly express protest. The facts and reality are well known to us and to many others, and no stupid sign will change them," the IFA said in its email.
This is not the first time Israel has faced scrutiny in the sports world since Oct. 7.
Ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, protestors — including some French lawmakers and an MP — called on the International Olympic Committee to ban Israel from the Games.
That same year, 12 Middle Eastern soccer associations — fronted by the president of the West Asian Football Federation, Prince Ali bin Al Hussein, the half-brother of Jordan's King Abdullah II — also called on FIFA to ban Israel from its competitions.
This was followed by the PFA requesting FIFA suspend Israel after claiming that the IFA broke FIFA's discrimination rules. FIFA's council ordered an independent legal analysis and opened a discrimination investigation, but delayed deciding on suspending Israel.
The conflict has led to tensions at soccer matches involving Israeli teams. On Nov. 6 and 7, 2024, fans of local Dutch club AFC Ajax and visiting Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv clashed in Amsterdam, resulting in five hospitalizations and dozens of arrests.
Soccer journalist Ronan Murphy says the protests could make some Israeli teams and fans feel unsafe attending matches.
"I think there's always going to be that tension around visiting fans or teams playing Israeli clubs and Israel national football team playing in away matches," he told CBC News.
"It might get to the stage where the fans will not travel for fear of violence, or the locals will not want the Israeli fans to come for fear of violence themselves."
Awareness is key for campaign
FIFA and UEFA haven't publicly commented on the "Show Israel the red card" campaign, which doesn't surprise Murphy.
"No matter what they say, it's going to be an unpopular decision. It's impossible for an organization like that to please everybody," he said.
Soccer content creator Bdair said he would like to see Israeli teams ostracized in a similar way to Russia, which was blanket banned by FIFA and UEFA shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
"We've seen how much it can damage a certain country," said Bdair, who is a well-known AC Milan fan on X. "We no longer see Russia at the World Cup, we don't see Russia in the European competitions, we barely talk about the Russian league."
Although Bdair says he doesn't believes a similar blanket ban on Israel is likely, he says it's important to highlight the "hypocrisy" that only Russia has been banned.
He also says the awareness the campaign has put on the plight of Palestinians is more important than a suspension of Israeli teams.
"What does matter to me is that the people know, and that's what these protests are more about," he said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Toronto Star
2 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Families of Americans slain in the West Bank lose hope for justice
BIDDU, West Bank (AP) — When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of U.S. politicians want to flip the script.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Families of Americans slain in the West Bank lose hope for justice
BIDDU, West Bank (AP) — When Sayfollah Musallet of Tampa, Florida, was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the West Bank two weeks ago, he became the fourth Palestinian-American killed in the occupied territory since the war in Gaza began. No one has been arrested or charged in Musallet's slaying – and if Israel's track record on the other three deaths is any guide, it seems unlikely to happen. Yet Musallet's father and a growing number of U.S. politicians want to flip the script. 'We demand justice,' Kamel Musallet said at his 20-year-old son's funeral earlier this week. 'We demand the U.S. government do something about it.' Still, Musallet and relatives of the other Palestinian-Americans say they doubt anyone will be held accountable, either by Israel or the U.S. They believe the first word in their hyphenated identity undercuts the power of the second. And they say Israel and its law enforcement have made them feel like culprits — by imposing travel bans and, in some cases, detaining and interrogating them. Although the Trump administration has stopped short of promising investigations of its own, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem has urged Israel to investigate the circumstances of each American's death. Writing on X on July 15, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said he'd asked Israel to 'aggressively investigate the murder' of Musallet and that 'there must be accountability for this criminal and terrorist act.' Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and 28 other Democratic senators have also called for an investigation. In a letter this week to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi, they pointed to the 'repeated lack of accountability' after the deaths of Musallet and other Americans killed in the West Bank. Israel's military, police and Shin Bet domestic security agency did not respond to requests for comment about the Palestinian-Americans' deaths. Families have demanded independent investigations American-born teenagers Tawfic Abdel Jabbar and Mohammad Khdour were killed in early 2024 by Israeli fire while driving in the West Bank. In April 2025, 14-year-old Amer Rabee, a New Jersey native, was shot in the head at least nine times by Israeli forces, according to his father, as he stood among a grove of green almond trees in his family's village. In the immediate aftermath of both cases, Israeli authorities said that forces had fired on rock throwers, allegations disputed by the families and by testimony obtained by the AP. Israel pledged to investigate the cases further, but has released no new findings. The teens' families told the AP they sought independent investigations by American authorities, expressing doubts that Israel would investigate in good faith. According to the Israeli watchdog group Yesh Din, killings of Palestinians in the West Bank rarely result in investigations — and when they do, indictments are uncommon. The U.S. Justice Department has jurisdiction to investigate the deaths of its own citizens abroad, but does so after it gets permission from the host government and usually works with the host country's law enforcement. The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem declined to say whether the U.S. has launched independent probes into the killings. A spokesperson for the embassy said in a statement that investigations are 'underway' in Israel over the deaths of the four Americans and that its staff is pressing the Israeli authorities to move quickly and transparently. In a statement to AP, the embassy spokesperson said, 'We continue to press for full, transparent, and rapid investigations in each case and understand that they are underway' in Israel adding that consular staff were in regular communication with Israeli authorities. Sen. Van Hollen said that when the U.S deals with Israel it 'either doesn't pursue these cases with the vigor necessary, or we don't get any serious cooperation.' 'And then instead of demanding cooperation and accountability, we sort of stop — and that's unacceptable. It's unacceptable to allow American citizens to be killed with impunity,' the Maryland Democrat said. Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers accountable Israel says it holds soldiers and settlers to account under the bounds of the law, and that the lack of indictments does not mean a lack of effort. A prominent recent case was the death of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist for broadcaster Al Jazeera killed in the West Bank in 2022. An independent U.S. analysis of the circumstances of her death found that fire from an Israeli soldier was 'likely responsible' for her killing but said it appeared to be an accident. Despite an Israeli military investigation with similar conclusions, no one was ever disciplined. Violence by Israeli forces and settlers has flared in the West Bank since the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 950 Palestinians have been killed since the beginning of the war in Gaza, according to the United Nations. Some have been militants killed in fighting with Israel, though the dead have also included stone-throwers and bystanders uninvolved in violence. Instead of justice, restrictions and detentions Rather than a path toward justice, the families of Khdour, Rabee, and Abdel Jabbar say they've faced only challenges since the deaths. Khdour, born in Miami, Florida, was shot and killed in April 2024 while driving in Biddu, a West Bank town near Jerusalem where he lived since age 2. U.S. investigators visited his family after the killing, his family said. Abdel Jabbar was killed while driving down a dirt road close to Al Mazra as-Sharqiya, his village in the northern West Bank. Khdour's cousin, Malek Mansour, the sole witness, told the AP he was questioned by both Israeli and American investigators and repeated his testimony that shots came from a white pickup on Israeli territory. He believes the investigators did not push hard enough to figure out who killed his cousin. 'The matter ended like many of those who were martyred (killed),' said Hanan Khdour, Khdour's mother. Two months after the death, Israeli forces raided the family's home and detained Mohammad's brother, Omar Khdour, 23, also an American citizen. Videos taken by family and shared with the AP show Omar Khdour blindfolded and handcuffed as Israeli soldiers in riot gear lead him out of the building and into a military jeep. He said he was threatened during questioning, held from 4 am to 3 pm, and warned not to pursue the case. 'Here, being American means nothing' Omar Khdour said Israeli soldiers at checkpoints have prevented him from leaving the West Bank to visit Israel or Jerusalem. Two other American fathers of Palestinian-Americans killed since Oct. 7, 2023 reported similar restrictions. Hafeth Abdel Jabbar, Tawfic Abdel Jabbar's father, said he and his wife were blocked from leaving the West Bank for seven months. His son, Amir Abdel Jabbar, 22, remains restricted. The father of Amer Rabee says he and his wife have also been stuck in the West Bank since their son's killing. He showed AP emails from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in which a consular official told him that Israel had imposed a travel ban on him, though it was unclear why. Israeli authorities did not respond to comment on the detentions or travel restrictions. Rabee said that in a land where violence against Palestinians goes unchecked, his family's American passports amounted to nothing more than a blue book. 'We are all American citizens,' Rabee said. 'But here, for us, being American means nothing.'
Canada News.Net
3 hours ago
- Canada News.Net
Netanyahu gets nod from Trump to widen war in Gaza
WASHINGTON DC — Just weeks after expressing optimism that a ceasefire deal in Gaza was within reach, U.S. President Donald Trump has reversed course, withdrawing his negotiators from talks and signaling support for Israel to intensify its military campaign, despite growing global concern over starvation and suffering in the Palestinian enclave. The White House decision to suspend involvement in ceasefire negotiations came amid what it described as frustration with Hamas, which Trump administration officials claimed have been disorganized and unwilling to engage in good faith. Steve Witkoff, Trump's envoy to the Middle East, confirmed this week that he is now exploring "alternative options" to secure the release of remaining hostages. He did not comment on the plight of the more than two million Palestinians who are being constantly bombarded, shot to death, and starved. Rather than press for a return to negotiations, Trump appeared to back Israeli escalation during comments to reporters Friday before departing for a weekend trip to Scotland. "I think they want to die, and it's very, very bad," he said of Hamas. "It got to be to a point where you're gonna have to finish the job." As CNN reported, it remains unclear whether Trump's remarks reflect a genuine collapse in talks or a calculated strategy to pressure Hamas into concessions. Nevertheless, the president's tone marked a shift from earlier this month, when he had suggested a deal was imminent. Despite Trump's public pessimism, Egypt and Qatar—key mediators in the region—described the latest pause in negotiations as routine given the complexities involved. In a joint statement released by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two countries said they would continue efforts toward a lasting truce. A senior Israeli official, speaking to CNN, also insisted that negotiations had "not at all" collapsed and suggested they could still resume. However, the U.S. withdrawal sent shockwaves through Doha, the Qatari capital hosting the talks. "This is an earthquake," one source familiar with the process told CNN. "We're dealing with the aftershock." The unresolved issues reportedly include the timing and conditions of a permanent ceasefire, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the Israeli military's future presence in Gaza. Underscoring the indifference of Israel's concern for hostages, Hamas said they were shocked at the U.S. claim, saying the return of the hostages had not yet come up in negotiations, and were scheduled to be discussed next week. Regardless, speaking from the South Lawn of the White House on Friday, before departing for a tour of his golf resort in Scotland, Trump placed blame for the impasse squarely on Hamas. "Now we're down to the final hostages," he said. "And they know what happens after you get the final hostages... they really didn't want to make a deal." The president's comments appeared intended to provoke movement from Hamas, even as some U.S. officials maintained that negotiations could still be salvaged. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told CNN that both Trump and Witkoff remained committed and were exploring all available tools. "We've tried. The world has watched this," Bruce said. "There are many tools in President Trump's tool chest." Yet no timeline has been provided for when—or if—a deal might come together, even after Trump's earlier assertion in July that an agreement was just days away. "Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff got it right. Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X on Friday night. "Together with our U.S. allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas's terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region." Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to deteriorate. During a meeting Friday in Tunis, Tunisian President Kais Saied handed Trump's senior Africa adviser Massad Boulos photographs of malnourished children, highlighting the urgency of delivering aid. "It is absolutely unacceptable," Saied said, according to AFP. "It is a crime against all of humanity." At the White House, Trump deflected blame, accusing Hamas of blocking humanitarian supplies and defending U.S. contributions. "We gave $60 million to food and supplies and everything else," he said. "We hope the money gets there… the food gets taken." However, according to CNN, an internal U.S. government review found no evidence that Hamas has systematically stolen American-funded aid in Gaza. International criticism of Israel's military actions is also mounting. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer described Israel's campaign as "indefensible" on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron said France would recognize a Palestinian state at September's UN General Assembly—an announcement that drew sharp rebuke from Israel and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Trump, for his part, appeared unbothered. Referring to Macron, he said, "He's a very good guy. I like him. But that statement doesn't carry weight." Meantime rallies protesting the plight of the Gazans have erupted around the world. Even in Tel Aviv, tens of thousands of people gathered in Habima Square, not only demanding the return of the hostages, but calling for an end to the so-called war in Gaza.
