Fifa president Gianni Infantino shakes hands with Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine football association, at the Fifa Congress in April as Israel FA vice-president Basim Sheikh Suliman looks on. Photograph: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
Fifa plans symbolic Israel v Palestine fixture as opening game of new under-15s tournament. Tournament open to all Fifa members, including Russia. Infantino wants to use football to promote peace.
Fifa wants to schedule a symbolic match between Israel and Palestine as the opening game of a new under-15s tournament in the United States in September. Although not an official Under-15 World Cup, the competition will be open to all 211 Fifa members, including Russia, who remain banned at senior level.
Fifa announced details of the tournament last December and has grand plans for the opening game because Gianni Infantino remains determined to use football as a vehicle to promote peace and global unity. Infantino experienced embarrassment in April when an attempt to orchestrate a handshake between the Palestinian and Israeli delegates at the governing body’s congress in Vancouver backfired.
The Palestinian Football Association’s president, Jibril Rajoub, refused to stand alongside the Israel FA’s vice-president, Basim Sheikh Suliman, in an awkward moment towards the end of the 76th Fifa congress despite repeated entreaties from Infantino.
This experience does not appear to have deterred Fifa’s president from attempting to play peacemaker, however, with a proposal to open the under-15s tournament with a game between Israel and Palestine under active consideration. The venue for the tournament has not been confirmed but Miami is regarded as the most likely. Fifa has extensive offices in the city.
The first tournament will be a boys’ competition, with a girls’ edition 12 months later, before Fifa moves to organise two separate festivals each year from 2028. Fifa sources rejected the suggestion that attempting to meddle in Israeli-Palestinian politics was dangerous given events in Vancouver.
Infantino is understood to be central to the initiative and made reference to the under-15s tournament after Rajoub declined to shake Suliman’s hand. “Let me thank the two representatives from Israel and from Palestine, who have the same rights, duties and obligations, who are members of Fifa,” Infantino said. “We will work together, let’s work together to give hope to the children, let’s work together for that.
“We have a beautiful under-15 tournament coming up, where we will invite all 211 countries to participate, all the children of the world, let’s do it for that. Let’s work together. You have my commitment, you have the support of the whole room.”
One Fifa source said a handshake in Vancouver had been agreed in advance, only for Rajoub to change his mind during the speeches. The Palestinian delegates were unrepentant in the immediate aftermath, with the Palestinian FA’s vice-president Susan Shalabi telling Reuters: “I cannot shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide. We are suffering.”
