Paul Pogba among 70 athletes demanding Uefa bans Israel from football

Premier League footballers and a former England cricketer are among 73 elite sportspeople to back a letter demanding Uefa suspends Israel from football.

Aleksander Ceferin, the European governing body’s president, was handed the letter on Tuesday as pressure mounts to reinstate a shelved vote.

Athletes 4 Peace, whose supporters include Crystal Palace’s Cheick Doucoure and former top-tier players Anwar El Ghazi, Hamza Choudhury and Hakim Ziyech along with manager Nigel Pearson, is on the list of co-signatories. More names were expected to be added later on Wednesday.

The group, which also includes England cricket international Moeen Ali, was among pro-Palestine groups to say they are “deeply disturbed by the lack of moral action taken by Uefa regarding the suspension of Israel from European football”. The letter handed to Uefa comes days after the Football Association of Ireland overwhelmingly approved a motion to call on Uefa to ban Israel. In September, the Turkish Football Federation also demanded a ban.

Israel’s participation in world football was not included on the agenda for a Fifa council meeting in Zurich in October. Sources close to the pro-Palestine campaign believe Uefa could call a vote by the end of the month. Ceferin, who is in London before a launch event for the UK and Ireland-hosted 2028 European Championship, paused a potential ban for Israel at the end of September when US president Donald Trump first proposed his peace plan for the region.

Other signatories on the letter included Game Over Israel, which was among groups applying pressure on police to stop Maccabi Tel Aviv fans travelling to Aston Villa last week.

“No shared venue, stage, or arena in international civil society should welcome a regime that commits genocide, apartheid and other crimes against humanity. Israel’s continued impunity for such crimes will only be ended by the weight of collective conscientious action, including measures to block their entry to sporting or cultural events and activities,” the letter says.

The letter reminds Ceferin of his own words on football: “Football belongs to everyone”. Key advisors behind the Game Over Israel campaign include Richard Falk, a former UN Special Rapporteur, and Craig Mokhiber, a former UN human rights official.

“Uefa action is stalled behind the smokescreen of a fake ‘ceasefire’ and sham ‘peace process’ created by the US-Israel axis, which seeks to quell dissent, to create space to consolidate their bloody gains in Palestine and across the region, and to normalise the Israeli regime,” Mokhiber says.

Ashish Prashar, campaign director for Game Over Israel, said: “For president Ceferin to pause his vote to suspend Israel from European football over a peace plan in name only, is either grossly naive, or purposefully blind.”

In response, Uefa said it would not comment “at this stage”.

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