FIFA is hypocritical at best and corrupt at worst and complicit in the genocide. It took swift action against Russia when it invaded Ukraine. But no action or sanction against Israel as a result of either the occupation or the genocide that has taken place in Gaza since October 2023.
Making billions from the 2026 World Cup which is just about to start in Canada, Mexico and US of A, it has consistently failed to impose its own regulations on the Israeli FA, which supports clubs based in occupied territory.
By not making a clear signal to the Israeli FA, it is allowing Israel to sportswash its crimes.
These point were made clearly as Palestinian activists and football fan gathered at UMIX in South Sheffield on June 9th to highlight the continued slaughter of Palestinian athletes. The names of 136 Palestinian footballers killed in the genocide were read out. It is far from comprehensive list but a way of commemorating the many others whose names we may never know who have been killed by Israeli violence and then there was a minutes silence.
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World Cup stats vs facts about Palestine
1. This World Cup will involve 1,248 players. With 3 base countries – USA, Mexico and Canada – that’s 416 players per base.
Imagine an event in which all the players from any one of those bases were murdered? That’s LESS than the 418 members of the Palestinian Football Association who have been murdered since October 2023 – and those are the people we know about. It is believe that over 1,000 Palestinians sports people have been killed since October 2023 but we may never know the true number.
2. The World Cup is being played in 16 different stadiums in the USA, Canada, and Mexico
ADD 130 to that number. This gives you the 146 facilities belonging to the Palestine Football Association, including 133 in the Gaza Strip and 13 in the West Bank which have been destroyed by the Israeli violence since October 2023. In total, 286 sports facilities have been completely or partially destroyed, including 135 facilities belonging to the Olympic Committee. This doesn’t even take into account the difficulties in providing facilities for sport and play in an occupied country the first place, and the innumerable small unofficial areas of play which will have been wiped out.
3. The FIFA World Cup 2026 is projected to generate over USD 10 billion in revenue, making it the most financially valuable World Cup in history.
Multiply that by 5. You are still falling below the figure which the most comprehensive accounting of the Gaza humanitarian crisis — compiled by the United Nations, the World Bank, and the European Union — estimates at $57.9 billion in direct damage and economic losses. Long-term reconstruction needs estimated at a further $71.4 billion.
4. 7 million tickets will be available across all 104 matches. This is an average of 67,000 people attending each match. Imagine the horror if an event at a World Cup match killed everyone there.
This would still be less than the estimated 72,000 Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023. And again, those are just the people we know about – how many bodies are buried, people detained, people disappeared?
5. Now imagine the numbers of everyone attending every one of the round of 16 matches, plus the 4 quarter final matches, plus the 2 semi final matches, plus the third / fourth place play off plus the final.
Even given those numbers, you would still be almost a million people short of the 1.9 million Palestinians who have been displaced since October 2023 alone. And that doesn’t even account for multiple displacements since 1947 onwards.
This World Cup runs for 37 days. This latest assault on Palestine has been going on for 978 days. Let’s keep Palestine in the headlines.
