The Foreign Ministry has announced that Israel will broadcast coverage of the upcoming World Cup (soccer) tournament to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates this year, via satellite.
The event, scheduled to take place in Russia from June 14 to July 15, 2018, is a quadrennial international soccer tournament of men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.
The event will be broadcast on the Kan public broadcasting network and will be free of charge. It will include pre-game commentary and coverage, all of it in the Arabic language.
The World Cup is the most widely-watched sporting event in the world.
Up to this point, Arab soccer fans in the Middle East have had to purchase a subscription to watch the game on the Qatar-based Al Jazeera network.
But Egypt has banned Al Jazeera altogether, and in addition to Cairo, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates have also severed their ties with Qatar over its support for global terror, most visibly Hamas.
Earlier this week, history was made when all of the aforementioned Arab states – including Qatar – sat together with Israel in an urgent meeting at the White House in order to discuss how to make life better for the residents of Gaza.
In his remarks, U.S. Special Representative to International Negotiations Jason D. Greenblatt thanked all the participants – who included representatives from the United Nations, USAID, the Office of the Quartet, the European Union, Canada and other nations, for leaving their politics at the door and focusing on practical solutions.