Man United icon Eric Cantona joins growing global campaign to expel Israel from international football
The King wants action: Manchester United legend Eric Cantona has joined the growing global campaign to expel Israel from international football. Photo: Valery Hache/AFP
Image: Valery Hache/AFP
World football governing body FIFA and European counterpart UEFA have been facing growing calls to ban Israel from the international game over their involvement in the genocide in Gaza.
Earlier this week, a United Nations commission of inquiry said Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Following that, a coalition of advocacy organisations and fan groups launched the #GameOverIsrael campaign in a bid to force FIFA and UEFA to act against Israel ahead of next year’s World Cup in North America.
That momentum has also spilled into the cultural arena, where prominent figures in film, music, and sport have begun to amplify the same message.
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At a recent ‘Together for Israel’ concert at Wembley Arena in London, scores of artists and activists, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Florence Pugh, Guy Pearce, and Ramy Youssef, joined the call for action to be taken against Israel.
One of those who spoke at the event was Manchester United icon and French actor Eric Cantona, who called for Israel to face the same football sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
"Four days after Russia started the war in Ukraine, FIFA and UEFA suspended Russia. We are now 716 days into what Amnesty International has called a genocide, and yet, Israel continues to be allowed to participate,” Cantona said to rapturous applause.
That debate will cast a shadow over Israel’s next fixture, a World Cup qualifier against Norway next month.
Israel will go head-to-head with Norway next month, with both teams still in contention to reach the finals in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Norway has pledged to give profits from the qualifier to support humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
“Neither we nor other organisations can remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering and disproportionate attacks that the civilian population in Gaza has been exposed to for a long time,” said the Norwegian football federation’s president Lise Klaveness.
“Israel is part of FIFA’s and UEFA’s competitions and we have to deal with that. But we want to give the profit to a humanitarian organisation that saves lives in Gaza every day and that contributes with active emergency aid on the ground.”
Norway’s message didn’t sit well with the Israeli Football Association.
According to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable, Israel has killed over 64,000 people – most of them civilians and children – since October 2023.
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