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If you take this long to investigate something, there is a good chance you are hiding something. FIFA and UEFA, it turns out, have been hiding several things. Ten, to be precise. That is the number of illegal Israeli settlement clubs now operating in the occupied West Bank, at least seven of them playing on land that should fall under the jurisdiction of the Palestine Football Association (Palestine FA). There are also three clubs in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.

FIFA promised to investigate illegal settlement clubs in October 2024 amid accusations they breach FIFA and UEFA territorial integrity and anti-racism statutes. Yet while seemingly counting these clubs, FIFA has been broadcasting their games on its streaming platform, FIFA . One club has been allowed to progress to Israel’s Premier League, after being given a generous helping hand by the UEFA Foundation and the U.S. government. Another club has been selected twice to play in UEFA competition, despite a strict vetting process apparently in place.

These are the findings of a new report I authored on illegal settlement clubs — the first time these have been thoroughly investigated since shortly after President Gianni Infantino and UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin’s presidencies began. They raise an uncomfortable question: are FIFA and UEFA’s leadership moving the goalposts on Israeli occupation of Palestine — effectively legitimizing illegal settlement clubs, and — by extension — Israel’s unlawful presence there? The evidence overwhelmingly suggests so.

Under Infantino and Čeferin’s leadership, illegal settlement clubs have grown in number, size, and stature, in keeping with the current and planned settlement expansion in the West Bank. The inclusion of these clubs within FIFA and UEFA’s structures legitimizes and promotes settlements, as well as facilitating the transfer of a civilian population, including footballers and their families to an occupied territory. It is also helping to implement a system of apartheid against Palestinians through segregated football structures built on their land.

Filing at the International Criminal Court

In February, Infantino and Čeferin became the first sports presidents to be accused of complicity in war crimes (the transfer of a civilian population into occupied territory) and crimes against humanity (apartheid) in a filing........

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