Uefa logic dictates Israel should face same sanction as Russia

I’m not someone who generally approves of using sport for political ends, believing friendly competition is perhaps the best tool we possess to unite people from different cultures and backgrounds… but as more and more money has come into play during my lifetime even the world of sport has become tainted by greed and avarice.

The way the 2020-21 Premier League season and Euro 2020 finals were sacrificed to the Covid plandemic scam just about destroyed any remaining faith I had in the integrity of professional sporting bodies so, OK, let’s use sport to bring some justice to the world too shall we?

Instead of prostituting it to the objectives of the global elite who gather in Davos, Switzerland, each year at the World Economic Forum (WEF) summit to plot the collapse of society… how about we restore some meaning and use it to put pressure on the evil regimes dehumanising our world?

If the war between Russia and Ukraine was anything other than a WEF extravaganza to push up the price of electricity globally and send inflation spiralling upwards I might agree with Russia being ostracised from the qualifiers for Euro 2024. But it’s not, it’s just theatre.

Vladimir Putin is just the pantomime villain in the plot and Volodymyr Zelensky the underdog hero in this WEF enactment. Sadly, like all WEF false flags, innocent people are being sacrificed and for that I am deeply distressed... but look to the south across the Black Sea, Turkey, Syria and Lebanon to Israel and its campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza… that’s a real tragedy of epic proportions.

It’s the globalists at their most evil, thousands of Palestinian children and civilians being slaughtered so that Israel can finally complete the colonisation it started 75 years ago after Word War II.

What about the Hamas attack on 7 October and their underground tunnels? Yeah, Israel has to have some excuse to commit genocide otherwise their friends in the world’s corridors of power might have difficulty failing to condemn it. Do the research… it’s all just heinous Israeli propaganda.

But carefully examine the facts and the propaganda rapidly starts to unravel, although the mainstream media won’t help you there. They’re in the pocket of those lovely chaps who sit down in Davos and plan a better world for everyone! Forgive me, I have to go to the bathroom to throw up!

So let’s start with Israel in our quest to use sport to bring some sanity and humanity back to the table, shall we?

A 2-0 win for the Israeli football team in Andorra last week was enough to earn them a place in the March play-offs for three remaining spots at Euro 2024 being held in Germany next summer.

The play-offs will comprise 12 teams in three paths, each offering one spot at the finals. I am pleased to say Wales also earned a place in those play-offs but for once the football has become completely irrelevant for me, totally overshadowed by the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza.

Wales and Israel have a long history in the sport going back at least as far as the play-off matches for the 1958 World Cup in Sweden, when Pele broke our hearts after we beat Israel to qualify for the tournament when few other countries were prepared to face them.

Then when we finally made it to the finals of another major tournament at the Euro 2016 finals in France… Israel had also stood in our way during our qualification for the tournament, 58 years after the World Cup finals in Sweden.

It seems destiny has some role to play in the meetings between the teams. And while in next year’s play-offs we may be drawn in separate paths, we can still play a landmark role in standing up for humanity by turning down our place in the play-offs if Israel is not barred from the race.

If Russia’s actions in the Ukraine were reason to bar them from qualification then surely, by the same logic, Israel’s genocide in Gaza should warrant an even stronger response from Uefa, the European governing body for the sport based in Nyon, Switzerland, on the banks of Lake Geneva, 400 kilometres west of Davos?

And who best to bring pressure to bear on Uefa? Well Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Ukraine come to mind as they are in the same play-off path as Israel. But Ukraine certainly won’t be the first to take a stand, although Iceland or Bosnia-Herzegovina could possibly do the right thing?

The other eight participants in the play-offs are Georgia, Luxembourg, Greece, Kazakhstan, Poland, Estonia, Finland and Wales. They will battle it out for two places in two separate paths and here Wales could set an example by boycotting the event if Israel is not thrown out as Russia was at the start of the qualifying tournament.

Missing out on the tournament is something I’d be hugely disappointed about but what’s happening in Gaza is so much bigger than sport. Israel has to be brought to account.

And then we come to sponsorship deals. At the moment the Israeli national team is sponsored by Puma, although I believe the deal may not be renewed when the current contract comes to an end as Israel is no longer listed on the Puma website in the category of international teams it sponsors.

But the Puma logo did figure prominently on their shirts against Andorra and Israel’s first opponents in the play-offs, Iceland, are listed on that website. So, stand up Reykjavik, perhaps the time has come to dump Puma as your sponsor? Refusing to play Israel in the play-offs might also be the humanitarian thing to do?

Other European international teams that Puma sponsors are Austria, Czechia, Serbia and Switzerland, who have all already qualified for Euro 2024. Might it be incumbent upon them to take a stand, either by dumping Puma or boycotting the finals if Israel is not thrown out?

Other international teams Puma sponsors are Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal plus Morocco and Egypt. How do the last two on that list feel about Puma’s sponsorship of Israel? Strong enough to cancel their contracts? I’d like to think so!

I believe there are 17 British football teams also sponsored by Puma including Barrow, Stockport County, Orient, Port Vale, Rotherham United, Wigan Athletic, West Bromwich Albion, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Notts County, Plymouth Argyle, Swindon Town, Peterborough United, Barnsley, Blackpool, Oldham Athletic and York City.

How many’s that? Hmm, 16… who might the other be? Well, if you watched the Manchester City draw with Liverpool at the weekend you’ve probably figured it out!

Yes, Premier League champions Manchester City have the Puma logo emblazoned on their shirt… and it’s much the same colour as the jerseys worn by Israel too. I wonder what Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s daughter Maria has to say about that?

She’s one of the many people who shared this poignant Twitter (aka X) post by Whateveawears condemning Israel’s terror campaign in Gaza: “So is this really what we’re going to do now? Just sit back and watch a genocide happen on the telly? Then decades from now, when it’s in the history books, all look round at each other and ask, ‘How did that happen?’”

Come on Pep, you manage a side which has a sponsor that’s supporting genocide, perhaps it’s time to say something?