Iran football federation asks FIFA to ‘completely suspend’ Israel over Gaza war

The Iranian football federation has called on world football’s governing body, FIFA, to “completely suspend” Israel from football-related activities due to the regime’s war on Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.

In an announcement on it official website, the Football Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran asked FIFA, its member associations and football unions to take “immediate and serious measures” to suspend Israel’s football federation in a bid to “prevent the continuation” of the Israeli war on Gaza and “to provide food, drinking water, and medical supplies to civilians.”

The federation said the suspension was recommended in response to the “inhumane actions carried out by the Zionist regime in Palestine and the commission of war crimes in Gaza, and the massacre that took place against innocent civilians, especially women and children.”

“Beyond a shadow of a doubt, an immediate action by FIFA, football associations and member unions will be a symbol of philanthropy and the implementation of the charter of the world football community in the field of social and human responsibilities, and will be a brilliant and lasting move in the history of football,” the announcement said.

Britain’s Sky News television network reported on Thursday that a group of football associations in West Asia, including Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates had also “asked world football chiefs to ban Israel over the war on Hamas in Gaza.”