AhlulBayt News Agency: A petition signed by more than 26,000 people in the United Kingdom has called for Israel’s exclusion from international football competitions and the cancellation of an upcoming UEFA Europa League match.
Launched by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the petition specifically targets Thursday’s scheduled game between English club Aston Villa and Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv.
It urges both the Football Association (FA) and European football’s governing body, UEFA, to cancel the match and “take steps to exclude Israel from international football.”
The campaign comes in response to Israel’s two-year-long genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Campaign director Lewis Backon personally delivered the petition to FA headquarters at Wembley Stadium, saying teams from nations “responsible for genocide and apartheid should not be playing in international football competitions.”
The petition further clarified that Maccabi Tel Aviv's actions, including sending care packages to soldiers, show that the team is “directly involved” in Israel’s brutal aggression against Gaza and allowing Israeli teams to compete “obscures the reality of genocide in Gaza."
It also pointed out that the Israeli football association includes teams based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank in violation of UEFA and FIFA rules.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Muslim Association of Britain, Friends of Al-Aqsa, Kashmir Solidarity Campaign, and Palestinian Forum in Britain have already called for the match to be cancelled, jointly organizing the protest.
Naeem Malik, chair of the West Midlands Palestine Solidarity Campaign, said there had been “national outrage” over the decision to host the Israeli team.
“The calls to cancel this match have been ignored despite the risks that it carries; therefore, we must urge activists to unite in protest against this match,” he stated.
Malik added that the Israeli side was “directly involved in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,” noting that the club has been linked to Israel’s infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank.
Despite the petition and widespread calls for cancellation, the match between Aston Villa and Maccabi Tel Aviv is proceeding under heightened security measures.
West Midlands Police have classified the event as “high risk,” citing current intelligence assessments and previous incidents.
More than 700 police officers will be deployed, along with police horses, dogs, and a drone unit, as protests are expected from multiple groups.
The petition represents growing public pressure on sports organizations to take a political stance against Israel for its genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Similar campaigns have emerged globally seeking to exclude Israeli teams from international competitions.
In September, a UN Commission of Inquiry found “reasonable grounds” to conclude that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, determining that four out of five acts defined under the Genocide Convention had been carried out.
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