Red Card Israeli Racism (RCIR) launched a blistering attack on Fifa’s Monitoring Committee Israel-Palestine after its chair Tokyo Sexwale missed another report deadline.

Sexwale was appointed head of the group at the start of the year, tasked by Fifa’s council to end Israel’s football clubs located in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.

However, in a statement released to the Star, RCIR said that not only has Sexwale not produced the report but he is yet to meet with the two associations’ representatives and is unlikely to do so before late March.

RCIR Coordinator Geoff Lee said: “This shabby record is totally unacceptable and indicates a lack of engagement by Fifa’s new leadership.

The Palestinian Football Association has bent over backwards to co-operate with Fifa’s negotiating process and deserves better treatment.”

At last May’s Fifa Congress, president Gianni Infantino promised to visit Israel and Palestine in a bid to start negotiation efforts but has yet to do so.

At the same congress, a deadline of October was set for the monitoring committee to produce a solution.

However, when the deadline approached Sexwale admitted to the Fifa council that since he had not met with any representatives of the two countries he could not produce his recommendations.

Despite it being postponed to January, it was then relegated to “any other business.” Sexwale was ordered to meet with the two associations and report back within a month after giving an “oral report” but once again failed to do so.

Lee now believes that Fifa should intervene and impose its own solution in respect of the settlement clubs. “The two sides to this dispute will not agree,” said Lee.

“But this is an issue which calls for a swift resolution in accordance with international human rights law.

“The Israel Football Association cannot be allowed to carry on supporting clubs based on stolen Palestinian land.”

RCIR also submitted a letter of complaint to Infantino.

“Infantino told Fifa Congress ‘his engagement was there’ on this issue,” said Lee. “But we have seen no evidence to bear this out. It’s high time he showed some genuine leadership and stopped kicking Palestine into the long grass.”

The Palestinian FA has spent the last two years demanding that its Israeli counterpart stop including clubs located in the occupied Palestinian territories in its leagues and competitions, which the Israeli FA (IFA) continues to ignore.

Human Rights Watch have pointed out that the IFA’s support for the relevant clubs — and Fifa’s tolerance of this — is a breach of international law.

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