With bombs falling over Gaza and the death toll soaring beyond 67,000 – more than 20,000 of them children – the football world watches in uneasy quiet.
UEFA and FIFA, the sport’s most powerful institutions, have chosen not to speak, even after the United Nations formally declared Israel’s military campaign a genocide.
Their silence, once seen as neutrality, now looks like complicity.
And it’s this silence that has turned Saturday’s World Cup qualifier between Norway and Israel in Oslo into far more than a game – it’s a test of conscience for global football.
What was once just another European qualifier has become a lightning rod for protest, solidarity and outrage.
Norwegian fans, activists and players alike see the match as a chance to reclaim football’s moral ground, challenging the indifference of its governing bodies.
The spark came months earlier, from a single social media post that exposed the widening rift between football’s polished image and its ethical failures.
On Aug. 9, 2025, UEFA paid tribute to Suleiman al-Obeid, a 22-year-old Palestinian star affectionately called the “Palestinian Pele.”
The message, shared on X, praised his talent and perseverance: “Farewell to Suleiman al-Obeid, the ‘Palestinian Pele.’ A talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times.”
What UEFA omitted was why the darkness came – al-Obeid had been killed days earlier in an Israeli airstrike that also claimed the lives of his family in Gaza’s Al-Nuseirat refugee camp.
The omission didn’t go unnoticed. Liverpool’s Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah, long outspoken about Palestine, responded bluntly: “Can you tell us how he died, where and why?”
The post went viral, amassing millions of views and unleashing a storm of criticism.
Fans accused UEFA of whitewashing war crimes, using sanitized sympathy to avoid confronting Israel’s responsibility.
Salah later doubled down in interviews, condemning the “complete silence” from football’s elite while young Palestinian players were being buried under rubble.
Faced with public outrage, UEFA scrambled to respond.
During the UEFA Super Cup final in Budapest on Aug. 13, a banner reading “Stop Killing Children and Civilians” was displayed before kickoff.
Two Palestinian children, both displaced by the war, joined UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin on the podium for the medal ceremony – a symbolic gesture that briefly drew applause.
But symbolism wasn’t enough.
Critics were quick to point out UEFA’s hypocrisy: Russia had been suspended just four days after invading Ukraine in 2022, yet Israel continued to play without restriction.
The gesture, many said, was performative – a moral display without moral backbone.
With Europe’s football institutions paralyzed, one small nation chose to act.
Norway, led by its reform-minded football federation president Lise Klaveness, broke ranks with the global silence.
A former national midfielder and lawyer, Klaveness has long been known for her fearless stance on ethics in sport.
On Aug. 21, she announced that all proceeds from the upcoming Norway-Israel World Cup qualifier – millions of kroner in ticket sales, broadcast rights and sponsorships – would be donated to humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“We cannot remain indifferent to the suffering and the disproportionate attacks endured by civilians,” Klaveness declared. She went further, urging UEFA and FIFA to suspend Israel from international football until it complies with international law.
By mid-September, the Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) formalized a partnership with Medecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), pledging all match revenues to emergency medical relief in Gaza.
A major Norwegian investment firm soon added 3 million kroner ($305,000), raising the total potential donation above 5 million.
Israel’s football association condemned the move as “politicizing sport,” but Klaveness’s initiative struck a global chord. Across Scandinavia, fan groups began calling for similar actions, arguing that silence is itself political.
Then came the report that changed everything.
On Sept. 16, the United Nations’ Independent Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, chaired by Navi Pillay, released its findings: Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
The report cited the systematic destruction of hospitals, schools and water infrastructure as evidence of intent to annihilate.
A week later, U.N. Special Rapporteurs demanded Israel’s exclusion from international sporting events, drawing parallels to the apartheid-era bans of South Africa.
Petitions surged across Europe, gathering more than half a million signatures urging FIFA to act.
For many, the question was no longer if Israel should be sanctioned, but why it hadn’t been already.
The pressure mounted further when Turkish Football Federation (TFF) President İbrahim Hacıosmanoğlu sent a formal letter on Sept. 26 to FIFA’s Gianni Infantino and Ceferin, demanding Israel’s suspension.
Citing the U.N.’s genocide findings, he wrote: “It is time for FIFA and UEFA to act – to suspend Israel until it complies with international law.”
Behind closed doors, UEFA’s Executive Committee reportedly debated an emergency session to discuss Israel’s membership.
Sources suggested that a majority favored suspension, but the effort collapsed after the U.S. government intervened.
A State Department official vowed to “fight with all our might” against any ban, signaling that geopolitics, once again, trumped principle.
Infantino finally broke his silence last week, but his words offered little comfort.
“FIFA cannot solve geopolitical problems,” he said after a council meeting. “Our mission is to unite people through football.”
The same justification had been used in past controversies – but never with such moral dissonance.
Critics, from Amnesty International to players’ unions, accused FIFA of double standards, contrasting its rapid ban on Russia with its inaction over Gaza.
Infantino’s ties to U.S. President Donald Trump, who helped open FIFA’s New York office in Trump Tower, only fueled suspicions that politics was dictating policy.
Now, as Norway leads Group I with 15 points and Israel trails in third with nine, the stakes are both sporting and symbolic.
On Saturday, Ullevaal Stadion will host not just a qualifier – but a reckoning.
Thousands are expected to march from Oslo’s city center to the stadium before kickoff at 8:45 p.m. local time, chanting for justice and waving Palestinian flags.
Fan groups like “Football for Palestine” are calling for supporters to wear keffiyehs and stage a symbolic moment of silence in the 67th minute – one second for every thousand lives lost in Gaza.
The Norwegian police have sanctioned the demonstrations, anticipating a peaceful yet massive turnout.
