For the past 17 months the Palestinian Football Association (PFA) has been demanding that the settlement-based clubs should be banned from all IFA leagues and competitions. Now the FIFA-led negotiations on the issue are coming to a head, with a proposal due to be presented to the FIFA Council on 13-14 October.

The case for football boycott of Israel is just as compelling as that for football boycott of South Africa.  South Africa was excluded from international football for twenty eight years (1964 to 1992) because of apartheid, rather than for football reasons.  South African sport was, and is, really important internationally while Israeli sport is not.  So why bother with sport boycott?