Israel is so concerned about the impact of being suspended by Uefa or Fifa that it has mobilised its prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to make personal pleas to football’s leaders.
As revealed by The Times on Thursday, Uefa is planning to hold an emergency executive committee next week to vote on banning Israel from European competition — and a large majority of members are understood to be in favour of suspension, which would almost certainly mean Israel are excluded from next year’s men’s World Cup.
Netanyahu is understood to have made phone calls to a number of senior figures in football to try to persuade them not to take any action against Israel. Donald Trump, the US president, is also believed to have warned Fifa’s president, Gianni Infantino, against moves to ban Israel.
Trump is believed to have advised Infantino against moves to block Israel from Fifa competitions
RON SACHS/CNP
Although having such a political heavyweight as Netanyahu taking up the fight could be seen as important, some football sources say it is potentially counter-productive as so many see him as the driving force behind Israel’s actions in Gaza, which have been declared as genocide by a UN commission of inquiry.
A Uefa ban would effectively mean Israel cannot qualify for next year’s World Cup because, although it is a Fifa tournament, Uefa runs the European qualifying competition.
Red roses celebrated… in Yorkshire?
There will be special celebrations at West Park Leeds RUFC if the Red Roses win Saturday’s Women’s Rugby World Cup final, as four members of the England squad played there as teenagers.
They include England’s star attraction Ellie Kildunne, World Rugby’s women’s player of the year, who moved to West Park as a 12-year-old after passing the age limit to play in boys’ teams at Keighley RUFC and Woodhouse Grove School.
Yorkshire roses: Kildunne is among a number of players from the region to have lit up the World Cup
THE TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLAND
England’s captain, Zoe Aldcroft, also played at the West Yorkshire club, as did Tatyana Heard and Morwenna Talling. Heard and Talling also played previously for the Malton & Norton club.
No place like home for Warner
The disgraced former Fifa vice-president, Jack Warner, was his typically rumbustious self when contacted by this column to ask about his victory in a court in Trinidad against being extradited to face corruption charges in the United States. He has always denied any wrongdoing.
Warner, 82, blamed the media for much of his troubles, but added: “As we say in my country, ‘God doh sleep,’ ” — a Trinidadian expression meaning, “God will not allow injustice to go unpunished.”
Wembley going back to school
A deal is expected to be announced next week for Wembley Stadium to host an American college football match next year, to build on the huge success of NFL games there.
The college game is huge in the United States and there is confidence that even the 90,000-capacity Wembley can be sold out for a match in London. The most likely match is between Kansas and Arizona State next September.
College football games in the US attract huge attendances and Wembley is confident of a sell-out
JERRY LARSON/AP
Black Knight of the French table
A deal by the Bournemouth owner Bill Foley’s investment group, Black Knight Football Club, for a full takeover of the French team Lorient is close to completion, sources say.
The group acquired a third of the Ligue 1 club in 2023 and is now poised to make that a majority shareholding to expand the multi-club ownership model, which now includes stakes in Hibernian, Moreirense in Portugal, and defending A-League premiers Auckland FC in New Zealand.
Acceleration on F1 pay
The salary of the Formula 1 chief executive, Stefano Domenicali, has almost doubled in two years to £8.8million — though perhaps that is small beer by comparison with the £80million payout Christian Horner will receive from Red Bull.
Formula One Management Ltd’s accounts were released this week and show Domenicali’s salary went from £4.6million in 2021-22 to £6.1million the following year and £8.8million in 2023-24.
Horner, right, pictured in 2018 with engineer Adrian Newey, agreed an £80m payoff with Red Bull this week
DAN MULLAN/GETTY IMAGES
The highest-earning sports administrator is the NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell, who according to The New York Times earned $63.9million (about £48million) a year for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, with 90 per cent of that as bonuses. Goodell is due at Twickenham next week, where he will be talking at the Leaders Week London conference.
Rooney’s curious choice
BBC Sport must have been more than a tad aggrieved that, little more than a month after it launched The Wayne Rooney Show podcast, the former England striker bared his soul to Rio Ferdinand’s podcast about his drink problems.
Rooney made front-page headlines after he told his former Manchester United team-mate that “he would be dead” if it wasn’t for his wife, Coleen.