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<div class="header reader-header" style="display: block;"> <font
size="-2"><a class="domain reader-domain"
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israeli-Company-Wants-Argentina-Banned-From-World-Cup-20180607-0011.html">https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israeli-Company-Wants-Argentina-Banned-From-World-Cup-20180607-0011.html</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Israel To Ask FIFA to Ban Argentina
From World Cup Over 'Religious Discrimination' After Canceled
Match<br>
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<div class="reader-estimated-time">7 June 2018 </div>
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<p>The Football Federation of Israel and the company in
charge of organizing the now-canceled friendly match
between Argentina and Israel will demand FIFA expel the
Argentine team from the 2018 World Cup in Russia due to
alleged “religious discrimination.”</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED:</strong></p>
<p><strong><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/BDS-Victory-Friendly-Match-Between-Argentina-Israel-Cancelled-20180605-0021.html">BDS
Victory: Friendly Match Between Argentina, Israel
Cancelled</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>The match was intended for Saturday, June 9 at 3:30
p.m. local Israeli time, but it was called off after an
intense campaign from the BDS movement. It would have
been the last match before the team's official
participation in the World Cup.</p>
<p>Comtec Group, an Israeli production company that
regularly organizes sport-washing events in the occupied
territories, announced Thursday morning they will fly to
Zurich and file a complaint hoping to get the star Latin
American team kicked out of the tournament, according to
the Argentine TyCSports, their organizing counterpart.</p>
<p>The company said they had already paid US$2 million to
the Argentine Football Association (AFA) and that the
tickets for the match programmed at the Teddy Kollek
Stadium in Jerusalem sold out in just 20 minutes.</p>
<p>The Football Federation of Israel backed up Comtec
Group's decision, which echoes their previous
accusations against the Palestinian Football
Association.</p>
<p>The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a
blatant sports diplomacy move, unsuccessfully called
Argentine President Mauricio Macri to try and convince
the national team to play the friendly match. Macri,
according to The Times of Israel, told Netanyahu he had
no control over their decision.</p>
<p>In fact, it was AFA's President Claudio “Chiqui” Tapia
who made the decision. “The ones calling us ignorant are
underestimating us because this conflict has been going
on for more than 70 years. What happened in the last few
hours led us to take this decision...” said Tapia in a
press conference after multiple protests against the
match.</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>RELATED:</strong></p>
<p><strong><a
href="https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Israel-Blames-BDS-Movement-Palestinians-for-Cancellation-of-Argentina-Friendly-20180606-0010.html">Israel
Blames BDS Movement for Cancellation of Argentina
Match</a></strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>“I hope you all can understand the decision I took as a
contribution to world peace. Football goes beyond
religions, sexes... and has nothing to do with
violence...” he continued.</p>
<p>But some people didn't understand the message and
interpreted the move as an aggression instead of
resistance.</p>
<p>“It’s unfortunate the soccer knights of Argentina did
not withstand the pressure of the Israeli-hating
inciters, whose only goal is to harm our basic right to
self-defense and bring about the destruction of Israel,”
said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman. “We
will not yield before a pack of anti-Semitic terrorist
supporters.”</p>
<p>The turn of the events even fostered controversy within
the occupation authorities. The Israeli Culture and
Sports Minister Mirian Regev, from the conservative
Likud party, is being accused by several Israeli
officials and football fans of politicizing the match by
moving it from Haifa to Jerusalem, a move that proved
controversial given the recent decision by the U.S.
administration of Donald Trump to recognize the city as
Israel's capital, contradicting international
agreements. Palestinians see at least the eastern part
of the city as the future capital of their independent
state.</p>
<p>Yitzhak Herzog, a Labor Party member of the Knesset and
leader of the opposition, called Regev's move “a
spectacular own goal,” while Avi Gabbay, head of the
same party, called for an investigation on Regev over
corruption allegations.</p>
<p>Regev, on her part, accused the Knesset members of
being “troy horses aiding terrorism.”</p>
<p>Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian football
association, celebrated Argentina’s move at a press
conference by reading a fan’s sign that said: “From
Palestine, thank you Messi.”</p>
<p>The Israeli embassy in Argentina regretted the decision
to cancel the match and blamed the “threats and
provocations aimed at Lionel Messi, which logically
sparked solidarity among his partners and fear over the
match,” and suggested that this is what athletes in the
Middle Eastern country must endure in their everyday
life.</p>
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