Norway leads European push to suspend Israel from FIFA

Norway’s football federation is actively pressing for Israel to be suspended from FIFA, pursuing the issue through football’s governing structures and citing past actions against Russia as a legal precedent.

Federation campaign led by Lise Klaveness

The Norwegian Football Federation (NFF), under president Lise Klaveness, has continued a diplomatic campaign inside European football seeking sanctions against Israel. Klaveness, a lawyer, former Norwegian international and a member of the UEFA Executive Committee, has framed the federation’s position in terms of rule enforcement within the sport.

“We believe Israel should be suspended, and this is about upholding the rules,”

Klaveness made the comment to media ahead of Norway’s World Cup qualifier against Israel in Oslo last year.

On-field choice and fan demonstrations

The NFF said it rejected a unilateral boycott because it would have yielded an automatic 3-0 forfeit in Israel’s favour and harmed Norway’s qualification chances. Instead, Norway played the match at Ullevaal Stadion and won 5-0, with Erling Haaland scoring a hat-trick that brought his international tally to 51 goals.

During the match, supporters displayed Palestinian flags and keffiyehs and a large banner reading “Let Children Live”. The federation donated all net ticket revenue from the sold-out, 23,000-capacity match to Médecins Sans Frontières for medical relief work in Gaza.

One private investment firm matched the initiative and pledged an additional 3 million Norwegian kroner (reported as approximately R5.07 million and about $310,300) to Palestinian medical relief organisations.

Precedent and FIFA response

Norway’s legal argument points to the treatment of Russia after its invasion of Ukraine, when both FIFA and UEFA swiftly suspended Russian teams. Advocates within the NFF say continued Israeli participation amounts to a double standard in enforcing human-rights-related rules in football.

FIFA, however, declined in March to suspend the Israel Football Association over the presence of clubs based in settlements in the occupied West Bank. Instead, FIFA fined the Israeli association 150,000 Swiss francs (reported as approximately R3.03 million or about $185,500), cited breaches of safety rules regarding discrimination and offensive conduct, and ordered an anti-discrimination prevention plan.

What the federation is doing now

The federation continues to pursue the matter within football’s formal governing bodies, using legal arguments and the precedent of prior suspensions as the basis for its campaign.