Roundup: FIFA president says Israel agrees to ease restrictions on Palestinian sportsmen

Visiting FIFA President Joseph Blatter said here on Wednesday that Israel agreed to form a joint team with the FIFA and the Palestinians to ease restrictions imposed on Palestinian sportsmen.

Blatter's remarks were made in a joint news conference held in Ramallah with Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian football association.

"The joint team will hold monthly regular meetings to supervise and observe the situation on the ground and provide the needed facilities," Blatter told reporters.

He said that he received written assurances from the Israeli side related to accepting the demands of the Palestinian side to lift the restrictions imposed on the Palestinian sports events and on the free movement of the Palestinian sportsmen.

"The Israeli officials proposed to issue a special accreditation for each Palestinian football player," Blatter said, adding that "the Israeli side also agreed to hold a joint meeting with the Palestinian side to try to overcome all the remaining issues that need to be jointly resolved."

He also said that he would get back to the Israeli officials and discuss with them the issue of the five sports clubs that had been built up in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians consider the Israeli settlements built up on the occupied territories illegal.

Blatter arrived in Israel on Tuesday and visited the West Bank earlier on Wednesday. The visit aims at mediating between Israel and the Palestinians to avoid Palestinian intention to submit a bid to the FIFA asking to freeze Israel's membership.

He told reporters that if a bid is submitted "and we reach the stage of voting on the Palestinian bid, I believe this would cause a loss to the two sides," adding that "we should separate politics from sports, and I'm here in a peace mission; I understand the Palestinian suffering and I'm here to help."

Last week, the Palestinians announced that they are intending to submit a bid to the FIFA Congress to demand sanctions on Israel, including the freezing of Israel's membership in the FIFA because of its tightened measures against Palestinian sports and sportsmen.

The FIFA Congress is scheduled to debate the Palestinian bid in Switzerland on May 28. The Palestinian Football Association agreed last year to withdraw a similar bid after Blatter's intervention.

Rajoub said that he backs Blatter's proposal of setting up a football match between Israeli and Palestinian football players. However, he said "before going for this peaceful football match, we have to create an environment for it and change the mentality of those who deal with us with hatred."

He also said that "guaranteeing a free movement and building up a better sports infrastructure which include developing the Palestinian sports can never be a political issue; it is a problem linked to football in the Palestinian society which doesn't get benefits like other colleagues in the FIFA."

The Palestinian official expressed confidence that most of the FIFA members "will back the Palestinian proposal," adding that "discrimination should never exist, and we want a mechanism that is accepted by the FIFA to avoid discrimination against the Palestinians."

After Blatter held earlier on Wednesday a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, he watched a video that documented the Israeli obstruction against the Palestinian sports movement and the restrictions imposed on the Palestinian sportsmen.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that Abbas highly appreciated Blatter's visit and his efforts and told Blatter that the Palestinian sports "had suffered a lot over the past years from the tightened Israeli restrictions that are still imposed on the Palestinians." Endit