Palestinian footballers, local clubs, and multiple international advocacy groups are preparing to lodge a case before the International Criminal Court, accusing FIFA president Gianni Infantino and UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin of enabling Israeli war crimes and a wider system of apartheid.

The complaint focuses on the decision by both governing bodies to allow Israeli football clubs based in illegal West Bank settlements to participate in official competitions, despite repeated warnings from UN experts and human-rights organizations. These settlements, built on occupied Palestinian territory, are widely recognized under international law and the Geneva Conventions as unlawful.

Over the past decade, "Israel’s" settlement enterprise has rapidly expanded, with more than 12,000 housing units advanced in 2023 alone, according to UN reporting. In parallel, Israeli authorities have escalated home demolitions and forced displacement operations in the occupied West Bank, particularly in Area C, where Palestinians face systematic denial of building permits.

UN human-rights monitors have also accused Israeli forces of excessive and disproportionate use of live ammunition, including lethal force against individuals who posed no imminent threat. Rights groups have documented patterns of arbitrary detentions, administrative detention, torture, and ill-treatment, including against children.

Shattered Sport

This legal challenge unfolds amid "Israel’s" ongoing assault on Gaza. Since October 7, 2023, Israeli attacks have killed at least 70,100 Palestinians, most of them women and children. Although a ceasefire was announced on October 10, 2025, Israeli forces have repeatedly breached the truce with near-daily strikes on the besieged enclave.

The destruction has extended deeply into Gaza’s sports sector. According to figures from the Gaza Government Media Office, 894 members of the sporting community, namely players, referees, coaches, and club officials, have been killed, including more than 400 footballers.

Over the past two years, 292 sports facilities have been destroyed or severely damaged, from stadiums and youth clubs to training halls and community fields. Academic analyses have similarly documented the systematic targeting of civilian infrastructure, including sports complexes, schools, and health centers, during Israeli military campaigns.

Complicity Denounced

Against this backdrop, the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) argues that global football authorities have failed to uphold their own rules. The PFA’s chief legal advisor, Kat Vilarev, told Turkey’s Anadolu Agency that both Infantino and Ceferin “chose to ignore” well-documented human-rights violations committed by Israel.

“Given the complicity of Israeli sports institutions in the Gaza genocide, FIFA and UEFA are legally bound to act,” she said. “Their statutes, human rights policies, and disciplinary codes require them to align with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

Normalized violations

Vilarev further explained that many Israeli athletes are active-duty soldiers who have openly called for Gaza’s destruction, and that some clubs “openly back occupation forces and even hold matches on occupied Palestinian land. That directly aids illegal settlements and the occupation,” she noted.

These concerns are amplified by a broader pattern documented by international bodies. UN officials have repeatedly warned that settlement expansion, land confiscation, home demolitions, and settler violence are reshaping the occupied West Bank in ways that entrench apartheid-like conditions.

Human-rights organizations have also described systematic abuses, including killings during raids, forced displacement, torture in detention, and the demolition of civilian infrastructure, as part of a larger architecture of domination.

The complaint being prepared for the ICC argues that by refusing to sanction "Israel’s" football institutions, FIFA and UEFA leadership have become part of this architecture, helping normalize and sustain violations against Palestinians rather than adhering to their own stated human-rights obligations.

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