UEFA may exclude the Israeli national team from the 2026 World Cup qualifiers and clubs from the Europa League.

The European Football Union (UEFA) is on the verge of making a decision to suspend Israeli clubs and national teams amid the conflict in Gaza. The final vote is expected to take place on September 23 at the organization’s executive committee meeting.

Pressure on UEFA

Reports about this came from the portal israelhayom.com. After the strike on Doha on September 9, Qatari officials began to insistently demand sanctions against Israel from UEFA. If the issue of suspending membership is put to a vote, there is a high probability of a positive outcome.

According to sources, 20 out of 23 executive committee members support the exclusion of Israel from UEFA tournaments, while only two or three opponents maintain an opposing position. The Israeli Football Association is making efforts to avoid having the issue of its membership included on the agenda. Nevertheless, pressure from some countries, particularly Spain, is increasing — it threatens to boycott the 2026 World Cup.

Influence of Qatar

Despite Qatar not being a UEFA member, Paris Saint-Germain president Nasser Ghanim Al-Khelaifi and his company Qatar Sports Investments have significant influence in European football. Therefore, the participation of the Israeli national team in the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament, as well as the Tel Aviv club Maccabi, which successfully knocked out Dynamo Kyiv, is under threat.

Positions of various countries

As previously reported, Russian media noted that 14 countries oppose the admission of Russian teams to UEFA tournaments. The change in the international arena continues to develop in such a way that the situation in Russian football may change even more.