By early afternoon, Israeli media sources were reporting that a compromise had been reached between Israel, FIFA and the Palestinian Authority, and the PA’s bid to expel Israel from the international football (soccer) league was over.
The attempt to use international sports (sportsfare) to attack Israel was initiated by Palestinian Authority sports chief and convicted terrorist Jibril Rajoub.
Rajoub strongly denied any compromise or agreement had been reached.
But at the last minute before the proposal was to go to vote, Rajoub submitted an amendment that would cancel the bid to suspend Israel.
The initial bid required three-quarters of the 209 votes to suspend Israel, and Rajoub may have cancelled his bid because he saw he wasn’t even close to having that number.
In the end, the FIFA Congress voted 165-18 to pass the amendment that cancelled the attempt to suspend Israel.
Rajoub claims he cancelled it because of the many phone calls he received from other football presidents.
Dozens of football presidents had already stated publicly they would not vote to suspend Israel in the FIFA Congress.
After the amendment passed, Israel’s delegate, Ofer Eini, said that politics and football have no place together and called on Rajoub to cooperate and work together with him.