It’s likely you heard the surreal news that FIFA President Gianni Infantino awarded Donald Trump a “Peace Prize” amid the backdrop of protest outside the Kennedy Center.
It’s less likely that you heard about a far more serious announcement the previous week: that Infantino will be formally accused of aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes against Palestinians.
The ICC filing parties will include a group of Palestinian footballers, Palestinian clubs, land owners, and advocacy groups Irish Sport for Palestine, Scottish Sport for Palestine, and Just Peace Advocates, with support from an expert legal team.
According to a public statement from the filing parties, Infantino, as well as Union of European Football Association President Aleksander Čeferin, are facing accusations that FIFA and UEFA funded settlement clubs—that is, football clubs that operate on land illegally seized from Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Now it would be massive if a significant amount of folks stopped going to games such that seats were noticably empty.
Like football in Saudi Arabia. Nobody goes to those games. The stands are always pretty much empty.
I rather not “vote with my wallet” and have a government that is able to do something. Furthermore, for a lot of people football is not just a game, but one of the few ways colonized people can prove themselves against colonizers, you cannot ask people from the Global South not to go because whatever, I want to see Ewwropeans moan and cry in the field. A much better thing would be going to the match and support Palestine so that it is visible, as many clubs have done in a lot of countries.