Should Israel be banned from European football?

As the 2 Israeli teams playing in European football competitions were knocked-out this week, the question is whether they should have been allowed to play in the first place. Russian teams were banned from the games immediately after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but UEFA has said it has ’no intention’ of banning Israeli teams even as the country faces trial for genocide. UEFA also hand out huge fines for displays of solidarity with Gaza and Palestinian flags during televised matches, keen to keep ’politics’ out of football. But no fines have been handed out for the fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv who brutally beat a man holding a Palestinian flag, nor for valorising Maccabi fans fighting as Israeli occupation soldiers in Gaza.