Israel: The Sport of Killing Athletes

FIFA’s Complicity

Dedicated to Sonya, who alerted me to the killing of athletes in Palestine

Sports are a part of life. Almost every adult, East and West, has learned something through sports. Teamwork, focused practice, accomplishment, fairness, and how to master competition while having fun start in childhood. Kids in poverty worldwide often view sports as a way out of the ‘ghetto’ or ‘favela’, despite the fact that the estimated odds of becoming a professional ‘footballer’ are approximately 100,000 to 1.

Sports teams also influence our national identity, as we cheer for our favorite teams to win. The business of sports is worth over 3 trillion dollars worldwide, 40% of which is generated by the U.S. The World Cup, which is watched by roughly 5 billion people, is currently underway. FIFA (international governing body for soccer) will generate $8.9 billion in 2026, primarily from TV rights and sponsorships. Each team that qualifies for the World Cup receives $12.5 million, and the winning team $50 million. Sports is a money-generating game. 

Soccer (known as football around the world), which is the most popular sport globally, has seen rapid growth in the U.S., surpassing basketball, baseball and American football in popularity among youth and young adults. To play soccer, all you need is a ball and a playing surface, which is why so many accomplished players often emerge from challenging economic backgrounds. 

Israel’s elimination of competition 

Israel is a country that kills its competition when it can’t win.

On Monday, June 29, 2026, Mr. Saleem Al-Ashqar, goalkeeper for a Palestinian club, was directly shot and killed by Israeli forces while on his way home from work. The 32-year-old was struck in the chest while exiting a local store in southern Gaza. He had purchased a propane cylinder to power his stove at home. Saleem had been married for five months, and his wife was expecting their first child. 

In another incident from August 2025, former soccer national team star Suleiman Ahmed Zaid al-Obeid, was murdered by the IDF while waiting for food near a food convoy. Aside from deaths due to shootings, hundreds of athletes in Palestine suffer from acute malnutrition and disease due to Israel’s blockade, according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Imagine training or playing hungry, without food or nourishment. While hunger can drive the will to win, hunger bordering on starvation destroys physical abilities. 

The IDF’s killing of athletes is not an isolated event. It’s part of a broader pattern. According to the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), thousands of Palestinian active sports figures have been killed including  1,007 Palestinian athletes, coaches and sports officials (962 men, 45 women) since October 2023. The customary method of killing is by automatic weapons, airstrikes, bullets fired from tanks and shootings at checkpoints or food distribution centers. It’s a war against a civilian population. 

The numbers of athletes killed by category of sport have also been verified by the Palestinian Olympic Committee, reported by WAFA Agency, March 2, 2026. These include:

Football (soccer): 565 deaths, 

Olympic Federations, and affiliated sports (volleyball, basketball, martial arts, and handball): 317 deaths

Sports scouts and guides: 125 deaths

Female sports workers and athletes: 45 deaths

By contrast, the world was horrified when 8 Palestinian militants from the Black September group infiltrated the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich and killed 7 Israelis, and one policeman.  The Western media labeled this as the Munich Massacre, and broadcast it as a feature news story globally for several days. No such news coverage is offered for the killing of Palestinian athletes by Israel that is one hundred fifty times the deaths of Israelis in Munich (Records, 1972 Summer Olympics, Munich). 

Destruction of sports facilities

The impact of Israel’s destruction of sports infrastructure in Gaza alone has been overwhelming. Israel has not only killed athletes, but it has damaged or completely destroyed 265 major sports facilities, including gyms, administrative sports buildings and two major historic stadiums, which have been rendered unusable. The estimated cost to repair the damage alone is over $20 million. At least 10 major stadiums used for competitions and age-group tournaments in Gaza have been destroyed, with 12 club headquarters razed to the ground. The impacts on youth sports and training will be felt for generations to come. 

FIFA’s complicity  

FIFA — the Fédération Internationale de Football Association — was founded in Paris in 1904 to oversee international football competitions throughout Europe. It has grown from 7 European nations to 211 member associations, and it added women’s soccer in 1991. 

Palestine, originally the only national soccer team which included Israelis and Palestinians, was usurped by Israel who inserted its players and then claimed the national identity for Israel, excluding Palestinians beginning in the 1930s. FIFA agreed to recognize Israel, not Palestine. In other words, colonialism was at work in sports. Furthermore, FIFA recognized and sponsored Israeli soccer clubs in occupied lands, which was deemed illegal by the UN (Mondoweise news, July 10, 2026).

Recently, the biggest change has been the influence of the U.S. on the organization. This influence is blatant, indicated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent telephone call to the President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, to “request” that a foul, an issued red-card, by a referee against an American player be dropped. Mr. Infantino, who had late last year awarded Trump a peace prize, had the foul reviewed and subsequently suspended. UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) said the move is “unprecedented, incomprehensible and unjustifiable” and Belgium’s football federation said it broke FIFA’s own rules. Perhaps President Trump can add sports ‘fixer’ to his list of careers. 

FIFA’s corruption goes further than suspending a disciplinary ban. FIFA, in the face of Israel’s killing of soccer athletes and destruction of sports facilities available for all to witness, has not uttered one word. Not one. In fact, Mr. Infantino, perhaps as a publicity stunt, suggested that Israeli and Palestinian youth play each other in a soccer match to demonstrate peace. FIFA could have billed the game as “well-fed and privileged Israeli youth playing hungry and bombed Palestinians in the spirit of sportsmanship.” 

Mr. Infantino has been investigated by FIFA’s ethics committee in the past. Charges have included billing FIFA for personal expenses unrelated to business, conflicts of interest over private jets supplied by World Cup host countries, and his initial refusal to sign his own employment contract. Each time, FIFA’s ethics committee, which answers to Infantino’s own organization, cleared him. Now he can add bending the rules for the Americans and his friend President Trump to the list. Fortunately, it didn’t work; the U.S. lost to Belgium fair and square. 

Conclusion

FIFA is a big business and colonial force in sports. It should be capable of managing itself effectively and changing its approach, but under Mr. Infantino, it hasn’t been. Call for the termination of Mr. Infantino, and restore ethics to FIFA, while limiting the impact of the U.S. and in particular, Donald Trump, commonly labeled “the fixer”. 

Email the U.N. and demand an international investigation into the killing of Palestinian athletes. This can be accomplished by entering contact UN into your browser. It won’t take but a few minutes. Reach out to one or two of FIFA’s advertising sponsors and demand better ethics from the organization.

Hold Israel accountable. Reach out to your representatives, foreign governments, and the International Criminal Court, and tell them to investigate Israel’s killing of athletes. Demand that FIFA recognize Palestine, invest in their soccer clubs, and desist support for Israeli soccer clubs in the occupied territories. Israel and its soccer clubs need to leave the illegally occupied territories of Gaza, West Bank, and East Jerusalem now.