The United States government will try to prevent any attempt from prohibiting Israel from participating in the 2026 World Cup.
A United Nations commission of inquiry said earlier this month that Israel had committed a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.
This led a panel of United Nations experts and the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez to call for sports sanctions against the country.
Next yearβs World Cup is co-organized by the United States, Mexico and Canada.
A spokesperson for the US State Department told BBC Sport: “We will work absolutely to fully stop any effort to try to ban the Israeli World Cup Israeli football team.”
Meanwhile, it was reported that the European director of UEFA football – which organizes qualification matches of the World Cup – could meet to decide to suspend Israel next week.
A senior source of a European member association added: βOur understanding is that the management of UEFA wants to see an action on this subject.
βNothing is confirmed or programmed. But there is a new high -level pressure of many nations compared to only a month ago. β
Israel is expected to play Norway during a World Cup qualification match in Oslo on October 11.
Earlier this month, the president of the Norwegian football federation, Lise Klaveness, said that his organization “was to face Israel participating in their competitions, but cannot and will not be indifferent to the humanitarian sufferings that take place in the region, in particular disproportionate attacks against civilians in Gaza”.
The Italian FA also talked about the challenges of the Israel game, which Italy welcomes on October 14 in Udine.
The UN report indicated that there were reasonable reasons to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law had been carried out since the start of the war in 2023.
A panel of UN human rights experts later called the World Director of Football FIFA football and its European UEFA body to suspend the Israel national team from international football.
Israel has regularly denied that its actions in Gaza represent a genocide and says that they are justified as a means of self -defense. His Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the “distorted and false” United Nations report.
The Israeli army launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the attack by Hamas against southern Israel on October 7, 2023, during which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 65,419 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas Ministry of Hamas in the territory. The ministry’s figures are cited by the UN and the others as the most reliable source of statistics available on the victims.
There has been an increase in calls to prohibit Israel from sports competition since the UN report.
And this comes in the midst of the reports that UEFA could vote on the opportunity to suspend Israel next week. UEFA said that no meeting was currently planned.
Israel is third in their World Cup qualifying group – organized by UEFA – in nine points, six behind the NorvΓ¨ges leaders.
The best team of each group is automatically qualified for the World Cup, the finalists entering the play-offs.
The Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez said that Israel should be treated in the same way as Russia being prohibited from international sports competitions.
“Israel cannot continue to use any international platform to whiten its image,” said Sanchez.
The Russian national team has been forbidden to participate in international football tournaments since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 by the country.
