Palestinian Authority Soccer Chief Jibril Rajoub is reportedly in a tizzy over a personal call to FIFA president Gianni Infantino from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, allegedly made this week.
“What happened yesterday, the Israeli prime minister called Infantino and asked him to delete [the proposed sanctions against Israeli soccer teams] from the agenda of FIFA,” Rajoub told reporters in Bahrain on Monday following the Asian Football Confederation Congress, according to AFP. “This has no precedent in the history of football.”
The Palestinian Authority has worked hard to implement an international boycott of Israel, its products and its sports teams at all levels and in all forums – to a great extent aided and abetted by the United Nations, which welcomed the PA into its membership as a non-state entity. This has enabled its officials to join hundreds of international agencies and treaties, where the Palestinian Authority now works to enact resolutions, sanctions, and other damaging moves against the State of Israel.
Netanyahu allegedly called to ask Infantino to block the governing body of world soccer from considering sanctions this week against six Israeli football teams who are based in Judea and Samaria.
The FIFA World Congress is set to convene in Bahrain on Thursday (May 11).