High-level talks in European football about whether to ban Israel from international competitions

Discussions are taking place at high levels in European football about whether Israel should be banned but no decision has been taken, Sky News understands.

UEFA - along with world body FIFA - is facing growing calls to suspend Israel's national teams and club sides from international competitions.

A group of United Nations advisory experts says sporting sanctions are now needed after a UN commission of inquiry said Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Those accusations are denied by Israel as it has continued to wage war on Hamas, two years since the October 7 2023 atrocities.

On Wednesday, fans of Greek side PAOK booed players from Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv at the start of their Europa League match, as they waved Palestinian flags and unveiled a big banner which read "Show Israel the red card".

Several demonstrators were detained ahead of the game in Thessaloniki, which ended 0-0.

Two small protests took place in the northern Greek city, calling for Israeli clubs to be expelled from European competition in response to mass casualties in the war in Gaza.

Around 120 Israeli fans were held behind a police cordon while the Maccabi team bus was escorted by police to the 28,000-seater Toumba Stadium.

Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN special rapporteur for cultural rights, told Sky News: "I think that when we talk about teams, national teams, not individual athletes, of states that are subject to valid claims of genocide… this is where this is for sure a red line."

FIFA and UEFA have previously rejected calls to suspend Israel but have not commented on the plea from UN rapporteurs.

Ms Xanthaki said Aston Villa should consider refusing to play Maccabi Tel Aviv in the Europa League in November at Villa Park - echoing calls from the club's local independent MP, Ayoub Khan.

He told Sky News: "I think Aston Villa ought to take the high moral ground and refuse to play with Maccabi. I understand they want three points but there is also this moral argument and I suspect a large number of Villa fans wouldn't really mind Aston making that decision."

He highlighted potential security challenges in Birmingham dealing with visiting Israel fans at a game that could attract both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel activism.

Mr Khan said: "My concern is around the safety of the local businesses, the local community, the local private hire drivers, bus drivers."

Maccabi fans faced antisemitic attacks while playing in Amsterdam last year, while there were also anti-Arab chants heard.

Israel's football association declined to comment on calls for the suspension of its teams from external competitions because they have not come from footballing counterparts.

But lawyers defending Israel have been fighting attempts to exclude the country from sport.

"It's very unfortunate that there is destruction during a war, but the Israeli Football Association and Maccabi Tel Aviv are not responsible for that destruction," Jonathan Turner, the chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told Sky News.

"It does strike Jewish people perhaps to a considerable extent because many of us recall that the Nazis started with boycotting Jews."

Read more from Sky News:
Israel 'kills 22 people including nine children' in Gaza
What recognising a Palestinian state actually means

One country banned from football is Russia, since 2022 following the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

That's because of European sides refusing to play against Russians and safety concerns if they did.

It's understood that European football chiefs are now starting to hear of teams not wanting to play Israeli opposition.

And UEFA has started to speak up against deaths in Gaza, with a "stop killing children" banner displayed on the pitch at the Super Cup in August.

But whether football should take a moral stand against Israel - and whether it can legally - is still being discussed.

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