European Union considers excluding Israeli national team from European qualifiers

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, Sept. 20 (YPA) – Channel 12 reported, on Saturday, that the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is considering excluding the Israeli national football team from the European qualifiers.

Israel is in Group 9 in the European qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, which also includes Norway, Italy, Moldova, and Estonia.

The Israeli team has played five matches so far, achieving three wins and two losses, collecting nine points, placing it in third place, tied with Italy on points but trailing it on goal difference, and it has four matches remaining to secure its chance of competing.

The private channel added that the UEFA management meeting next week is expected to discuss excluding the Israeli national football team from the European qualifiers and suspending Maccabi Tel Aviv from the Europa League.

In this context, Channel 12 indicated that “parties in Israel are making attempts to prevent the exclusion.”

It attributed the reason for the possible European action to “the Israeli attack on Qatar, one of the largest sponsors of UEFA.”