The international soccer governing body FIFA announced Oct. 27 that it would allow six Israeli settlement soccer clubs located in the occupied Palestinian territories to continue playing in the Israeli leagues. The FIFA Council meeting in Kolkata, India, chose to preserve the status quo from among three options recommended by its own monitoring committee.

Six Israeli settlement clubs located in the occupied territories play regularly in the leagues of the Israeli Football Association (IFA) in contradiction to FIFA bylaws, since the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) league is also in the same location.

Tokyo Sexwale — the chairman of the FIFA Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine, which was established based on the decision by the 65th FIFA Congress in 2015 to avert a vote on suspending Israel from world soccer — submitted a report to the FIFA Council that included three options:

• Maintenance of the current status quo. Under this option, it implies that there should be no action by FIFA until the Oslo discussions — or similar negotiations — involving facilitated or direct talks between the parties have resolved the Israel-Palestine conflict.
• IFA is given a warning by FIFA (yellow card) to rectify this issue by desisting to administer soccer on the territories concerned within a minimum period of six months.
• Continued discussions between the IFA and the PFA should be encouraged [and] should be based purely on soccer issues aimed at finding accommodation on how to agree amongst themselves.

FIFA’s governing council chose the option to “maintain the status quo.” In a statement issued Oct. 27 in Kolkata, FIFA said that resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is beyond its ability and claimed that “any interference by FIFA in the status quo of football in the relevant territories without the consent of the parties concerned might aggravate the situation of football not only in the territories in question, but also in the greater region affected — which would not be in the best interests of the game.” The FIFA Council added, “The matter is declared closed and will not be the subject of any further discussion until the legal and/or de facto framework has changed.”