IRISH football’s governing body has voted overwhelmingly in favour of submitting a motion to UEFA to suspend Israel from European football.
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) put the resolution to members of its General Assembly at an EGM on Saturday, with 74 voting in favour.
Seven members voted against the resolution, which needed the backing of 50 per cent of the assembly to pass, while two others abstained.
“In a Extraordinary General Meeting — which took place before the Annual General Meeting — the members of the General Assembly voted in favour of the Association submitting a formal motion to the UEFA Executive Committee requesting the immediate suspension of the Israel Football Association from UEFA Competitions,” read a statement from the FAI.
The resolution, proposed by Dublin club Bohemians, would call on UEFA to ban the Israel Football Association (IFA) from all UEFA competitions.
It would apply to both the Israeli national team and Israeli clubs.
Alleged violations
The motion cited the IFA’s alleged violation of two UEFA statutes, namely the establishing of Israeli clubs in the occupied West Bank and the failure of the IFA to implement and enforce an effective anti-racism policy.
The resolution also called on UEFA to publish ‘transparent criteria for the suspension or exclusion of member associations to ensure equal treatment of all members’.
In February 2022, both FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia from all competitions within four days of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The FAI resolution follows similar calls in September from the Turkish and Norwegian football associations to suspend Israel from European competition.
That came after UN experts called on UEFA and FIFA to ban Israel following a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry that concluded Israel had committed four of the five genocidal acts defined under the international Genocide Prevention treaty.
Both UEFA and FIFA were reportedly considering banning Israel before a ceasefire was brokered in October.