UEFA supports Israel's status in soccer ahead of Euro 2024 playoff games next month
PARIS (AP) — Israel’s status in European soccer is not in question, UEFA said Thursday, ahead of playoff games involving the men’s national team next month amid the conflict with Hamas.
Israel will face Iceland on March 21 in a European Championship qualifying playoff being played in neutral Budapest, Hungary. The winner will be away to Ukraine or Bosnia-Herzegovina in a decisive playoff five days later.
Since the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and the resulting war, Israeli club and national teams have not hosted games in UEFA competitions because of security concerns.
Russian teams are currently banned from international soccer — enforced since March 2022 when many European national federations refused to play games against them — and Yugoslavia was famously excluded from the 1992 European Championship while under United Nations sanctions during war in the Balkans.
Those examples were cited at a news conference Thursday after the annual congress of 55 UEFA member federations including Israel.
“There was no such discussion or such intention from the UEFA administration,” its general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said.
“There are two completely different situations between the two countries,” he said. “Don’t forget the start of the war in Russia and Ukraine and the start of what is happening now — which is regrettable, of course — in the Middle East.”
Among Israeli clubs, Maccabi Haifa will host Gent of Belgium next Thursday in the first leg of the Europa Conference League knockout playoff round, also in Budapest. Maccabi Tel Aviv has advanced to the round of 16, which is played next month.
Israel has been a member of European soccer body UEFA for 30 years and stopped playing in Asian competitions in the 1970s for security reasons.
If Israel qualifies for this summer's Euro 2024 in Germany, the team will play in a group against Romania in Munich, Slovakia in Duesseldorf and Belgium in Stuttgart.
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