No match organized by UEFA will be played in Israel “until further notice” for security reasons linked to the conflict between the Jewish state and Palestinian Hamas, the European football body announced in a press release on Thursday. . “After a thorough assessment of the current safety and security situation throughout Israel, the UEFA Executive Committee has decided that no UEFA competitive matches will be played in Israel until further notice,” wrote the authority.
Two Israeli team matches already postponed
The Israeli Football Federation and its clubs involved in European competitions, Maccabi Haifa FC and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, “were invited to propose other venues/stadiums (…) outside the territory of Israel for their home matches, as long as this decision remains in force.
The Europa League match in Group H – in which Rennes is located – between Villarreal and Maccabi Haifa scheduled for Thursday October 26 has already been postponed to December 6, as has the Europa Conference League match between Maccabi Tel-Aviv and Zorya Luhansk, scheduled for the same date and postponed to November 25. The body adds that the Maccabi Haifa youth team engaged in the Youth League has withdrawn from the competition and will be replaced this season by that of Sparta Prague in the second round.
UEFA had already postponed two international matches, including the Euro-2024 qualifying match between Israel and Switzerland, initially scheduled for October 12, to November 15, at a location which remains to be determined. The Kosovo-Israel match, scheduled for October 15, had also been postponed, the Israeli authorities having prohibited their national team from “traveling abroad”.
In Israel, more than 1,400 people have been killed since the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its soil on October 7, most of them civilians on the day of the attack, according to Israeli authorities, and the number of Hamas hostages were revised upwards to 203 people on Thursday. Nearly 3,500 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Gaza Strip, bombed by Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health controlled by Hamas.