Amnesty International’s regional director for Europe, Steve Cockburn, issued the demand on Tuesday, 48 hours before Austria and Israel meet at the Raiffeisen Arena on Thursday to open Group B3 of the 2026/27 Nations League.

The complaint centers on football’s own rulebook. Amnesty argues that the Israel Football Association (IFA) is in breach of FIFA statutes because clubs based in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory continue to compete in Israel’s domestic leagues, and it says both FIFA and UEFA should have suspended the IFA long ago for refusing to exclude them.

“It’s unconscionable that the Israel men’s football team will participate in the UEFA Nations League this autumn despite clear evidence that Israel’s football association continues to support illegal settlements,” Cockburn said.

“Sport should never be used as a public relations spectacle for states committing atrocities. The beautiful game should bring people together, not rubber-stamp apartheid.”

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Amnesty first wrote to FIFA and UEFA in October 2025 calling for the IFA to be suspended unless settlement-based clubs were removed from Israeli competitions. FIFA said in March 2026 it would take no action. The Palestinian Football Association has since escalated the dispute to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

UEFA rejects Ireland’s request

The statement lands into a governance row that is already live inside European football. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI), whose members voted overwhelmingly in November 2025 for the board to seek Israel’s suspension, asked UEFA to keep the two teams apart in future draws after they were paired in February.

UEFA turned the request down.

“Decisions to avoid certain teams being drawn against each other are made taking into consideration several factors, especially conditions between the two countries leading to structural risks for security,” UEFA said last week. FAI chief executive David Courell said Irish officials had been told the arrangement was not possible because Ireland and Israel had “never been in direct conflict”.

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The IFA head of communications, Shlomi Barzel, dismissed the Irish push, asking whether there had been “an official inquiry or request regarding this matter, or is this merely another inconsequential statement?”

Neutral venues in Hungary and Serbia

Austria’s meeting with Israel in Linz on Thursday is the only match in the group’s opening window that will be played in front of a full home crowd. UEFA has approved neutral venues for both fixtures between Ireland and Israel: the 27 September match will be played in Debrecen, Hungary, with no tickets allocated to Irish supporters, and the 4 October return will be played behind closed doors in Backa Topola, Serbia. Kosovo also faces Israel during the same international window.

FIFA and UEFA have not commented publicly on Amnesty’s demand.

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