Conflicts and struggles in our everyday lives often affect the soccer world, leading to postponements and even cancellations of matches. Currently, there is a conflict between Israel and Palestine, with a full-blown war in the region.
This has led to regular activities being disrupted, and even soccer has been disrupted there. The conflict has made it virtually impossible for any soccer match to even take place. With many important tournaments coming up, many vital matches have not been able to take place due to the conflict.
UEFA announces to reschedule matches for Israel
As the situation in the country is uncertain, UEFA decided to halt all matches for the Israel football team. And now the organization has announced that the three matches that have been missed will be postponed.
The three matches that were missed were a Euro 2024 qualifier for the men’s team against Kosovo and two matches for the women’s team against Kazakhstan as part of the UEFA Women’s Nations League. Only one of the women’s matches will take place in the nation itself, with the other two in the other countries. The matches will respectively take place on November 12, 23 and 26.
It is unclear what the situation in the nation is and when the ongoing conflict will finally end. Unless it ends by the time of the new dates, it may not be possible for the matches to take place. In that case, it again needs to be postponed to later dates.
Since the matches will not be during the international break, clubs affiliated with UEFA will have to release only one of their players. They will have to be released two days prior to the matches.
Fans demand UEFA ban Israel
But many fans and people around the world have called on UEFA to ban the nation from participating even. The conflict has seen the mass massacre of innocent Palestinian citizens in Gaza including many hospitals, with Israel claiming they were used as human casualties by the terrorist organization Hamas.
Many have called out the hypocrisy in UEFA, which quickly banned Russia from all competitions after they invaded Ukraine. Now that Israel has done the same, UEFA has been quiet and has even punished many players who showed support for the Palestinians. The fans have even yelled ‘Free Palestine!’ during a qualifier match.
And so many of them want the same treatment as Russia to be extended to Israel’s soccer team.
It remains to be seen if UEFA does ban Israel from all competitions, though that could be unlikely.
What is your view on this? Drop them in the comments!
