FIFA president Gianni Infantino and his UEFA counterpart Aleksander Ceferin have been accused of “aiding war crimes” and “crimes against humanity in the occupied Palestinian territory” in a complaint filed at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The formal complaint, a “120-page” document filed by advocacy groups Irish Sport for Palestine, Scottish Sport for Palestine, Just Peace Advocates, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, and Sport Scholars for Justice in Palestine was sent to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on February 16.
As outlined in a joint statement released to The Athletic, the submitting parties also included a group of Palestinian footballers, Palestinian clubs, landowners, and a human rights organisation in Palestine.
The allegations focus on FIFA and UEFA’s “inclusion of Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian territory that were built on land stolen from Palestinian people”.
“FIFA and UEFA permit these clubs to play in leagues organised by the Israel Football Association and host matches on the seized land,” the statement added.
“They also provide financial and structural support to settlement clubs, some of which have played in the UEFA-organised competitions.”
Israel rejects claims from The United Nations and the International Court of Justice that all Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank area violate international law, according to the New York times.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, and UEFA, its European equivalent, had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.
The ICC, an intergovernmental and international tribunal that sits in The Hague in the Netherlands, investigates and tries individuals charged with crimes against humanity, including war crimes, genocide, and the crime of aggression.
Individuals who are deemed responsible for their organisation’s actions and policies can appear before the ICC as defendants, though the organisations themselves, like FIFA and UEFA, cannot.
In October, Amnesty International, the global human rights organisation, wrote an open letter to FIFA and UEFA calling on them to “suspend the Israeli Football Association until clubs from settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory are removed from its leagues”.
The letter also argued that “football cannot be separated from Israel’s unlawful occupation”.
As previously reported by The Athletic, UEFA, under pressure from a number of its members, had considered calling a vote on Israel’s ongoing participation in European football in late September, but ultimately held off after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was brokered by the United States on September 29.
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UEFA has been under pressure to call a vote on Israel’s ongoing participation in European football.
In an interview on February 2, Infantino said that implementing a ban on Israel “is a defeat”, adding that he will explore the possibility of changing FIFA’s statutes to prevent national teams being banned, saying they “should actually never ban any country from playing football because of the acts of their political leaders”.
The advocacy groups also allege that the actions of FIFA and UEFA “normalises life in the settlements and legitimises Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine”, which, they say, contributes to “the transfer of civilian population into occupied territories contrary to the Rome Statute art 8(2)(b)(viii)”.
“The practice also aids and abets apartheid (a crime against humanity pursuant to Rome Statute art7(1)(j)) — Palestinians are not allowed to enter the matches as spectators, play for, or become managers of, the illegal settlement clubs”, their statement adds.
“Settlements are a part of the Israeli government’s colonial project and UEFA and FIFA’s policies under the political leadership of their Presidents assist with the conduct of these criminal activities”.
The advocacy groups’ statement also claims that FIFA and UEFA are “operating with impunity” and that “there are no effective internal or external accountability mechanisms for them or their leaders for violations of human rights and international law”.
The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC will now conduct a preliminary examination to determine whether an investigation can proceed with legal issues raised in the complaint.
Source: The Athletic