Qatar’s role
The Trump-Netanyahu peace proposal on Monday also was quickly welcomed by governments in the Middle East including Qatar, a key supporter of the Palestinian people. Qatar’s prime minister received an apology from Netanyahu, by telephone from the White House, for a Sept. 9 military strike on Doha that targeted Hamas officials.
Qatar also has close commercial and sports political ties to UEFA, whose President Aleksander Ceferin attended the FIFA meeting Thursday. Also there was Nasser al-Khelaifi, the influential head of the 700-member European Club Association network of teams and president of Paris Saint-Germain, the Qatar-owned Champions League titleholder. Al-Khelaifi also is a member of Qatar’s government.
FIFA-Palestinians meeting
Before going to FIFA, Rajoub had been in Switzerland and met Wednesday with International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry in Lausanne.
A post on Infantino’s Instagram account said he and Rajoub met to “discuss the ongoing situation in the Middle East region.”
There was no mention of progress at FIFA in two investigations it set up last year after a formal request by the Palestinian soccer body to suspend Israel.
FIFA requested a disciplinary investigation into possible discrimination by the Israeli soccer federation and a separate governance panel is looking into “the participation in Israeli competitions of Israeli football teams allegedly based in the territory of Palestine.” FIFA has given no timetable for the two cases to be resolved.