TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel will not host any UEFA-sanctioned soccer matches until further notice, Europe’s governing body said Thursday, amid the ongoing war with Hamas.
UEFA said it had conducted a “thorough evaluation of the current safety and security situation in the whole territory of Israel” before the decision was made by its Executive Committee.
The ruling will impact Israeli teams Maccabi Haifa and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which are competing in the Europa League and Europa Conference League respectively.
“The Israel Football Association and its clubs Maccabi Haifa FC and Maccabi Tel Aviv have been requested to propose alternative venues/stadiums (which must comply with all applicable UEFA regulations) outside the territory of Israel for their home matches to be used for as long as this decision remains in force,” UEFA said.
Maccabi Haifa’s game at Villarreal on October 26 has been put back to December 6 and Maccabi Tel Aviv’s home game against Zorya Luhansk scheduled for the same day will now be held on Nov. 25.
Earlier this month, UEFA postponed all matches scheduled to take place in Israel over a two-week period after the Hamas terror group’s devastating onslaught on October 7.
That included Israel’s match against Switzerland in the 2024 European Championship qualifying at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium.
The governing body then postponed Israel’s qualifying game against Kosovo “because the Israeli authorities currently do not allow their national team to travel abroad.”
Maccabi Haifa’s youth team has withdrawn from the UEFA Youth League, which means Sparta Prague has advanced to round two.
War erupted after Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw at least 1,500 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,400 people and seizing over 200 hostages of all ages under the cover of a deluge of thousands of rockets fired at Israeli towns and cities.
The vast majority of those killed as gunmen seized border communities were civilians — men, women, children and the elderly. Entire families were executed in their homes, and over 260 were slaughtered at an outdoor festival, many amid horrific acts of brutality by the terrorists, in what US President Joe Biden has highlighted as “the worst massacre of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas, and says it is targeting all areas of Gaza where Hamas operates, while seeking to minimize harm to civilians.
