But Israel Gets To Play On During Their Genocide
Football is a working man’s game. It always has been. It belongs to the terraces, not the boardrooms. It’s where you see people’s hearts worn on their sleeves — literally. So when a club like Brighton & Hove Albion decides to ban a long-time season ticket holder for five matches just for wearing a Palestine shirt, that cuts deep. It tells you whose voices are allowed, and whose aren’t.
Roger Wade, founder of Boxfresh and a Brighton fan for nearly a decade, says he was pulled out at half-time during the Fulham game. His crime? Wearing an official Palestine football shirt. No slogans. No chants. Just the word Palestine. Instead of dialogue, the club slapped him with a five-game ban letter.
It’s important to note here, contrary to some reports, Roger didn’t do anything wrong. He wore an official Palestine team shirt but kept his jacket on in hospitality to keep within BHAFC corporate rules. Once in his seat he took his jacket off but at half time, stewards asked him to leave the hospitality area, with no explanation.
Meanwhile, Brighton Academy mentor Tomer Hemed — a man on the payroll — has put out racist, genocidal comments about Palestinians on social media (documented by Seagulls Against Apartheid). No sanctions. No bans. No problem. So a fan gets banned for five games for a shirt, but a club insider can spew hate and keep his job. The hypocrisy stinks.
The Double Standards Are Everywhere
And it doesn’t stop with Brighton. The whole world of sport is riddled with double standards.
Russia? They were hammered for years over doping. Their Olympic athletes were stripped of their flag and forced to compete as “neutral” competitors — humiliated on the world stage. Then, when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, FIFA and UEFA banned them outright. Their national teams, their clubs, men, women, youth — all gone. Almost every other major sport followed suit. Russia was frozen out of world sport completely.
When Russia invaded, the Premier League encouraged fans to wear Ukrainian colours, wave Ukrainian flags, sing Ukrainian songs. Nobody batted an eyelid.
Now look at Israel. An apartheid state. A state documented by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch as committing systematic war crimes. A state dropping bombs on hospitals, schools, refugee camps. A state killing tens of thousands in Gaza. And yet Israel still plays in UEFA competitions. Their national team still lines up to qualify for the Euros. Their clubs still face off in Europe.
And let’s be honest: when Israeli clubs play in Europe, violence seems to follow.
- In November 2024, before a Europa League match in Amsterdam between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv, fans tore down Palestinian flags, chanted anti-Arab slogans, and brawled with locals. Five men were later sentenced in Dutch courts after the riots (source).
- During a Europa Conference League game against Raków Częstochowa, Maccabi Haifa fans unfurled a banner reading “Murderers since 1939.” UEFA opened disciplinary proceedings (source).
- Israeli clubs have a long track record of racist chanting and violence — from monkey chants aimed at Black players to anti-Arab slurs documented in domestic and European competitions.
So not only is Israel an apartheid state, they bring the chaos with them when they play abroad. Instead of uniting people through football, they export the violence and division.
One law for them, another for us — that’s the reality of world sport.
So let’s be blunt: Russia gets banned from world sport for doping and war. Israel commits genocide and gets to carry on playing football and every other sport on a world stage with impunity. If that’s not a double standard, I don’t know what is.
Football Has Always Been Political
The people who say “keep politics out of football” are either lying to themselves or lying to you. Politics has always been part of football. Whether it’s clubs rooted in workers’ struggles, terraces flying miners’ banners, or leagues endorsing political stances that suit the establishment.
And let’s not forget the Black Lives Matter protests. That wasn’t just fans — that was the players themselves. Every England international for years began with the whole team dropping to one knee. Premier League players wore “Black Lives Matter” on their shirts after George Floyd’s murder. Clubs put out official statements. For years it was part of the matchday ritual.
UEFA and FIFA love to plaster Kick Racism Out of Football across stadiums. They embraced Black Lives Matter when it suited them. But what’s more racist than an apartheid state wiping out indigenous brown people to steal their land? The hypocrisy is off the scale.
So when people say football shouldn’t be political — sorry, but it already is. It’s just that some politics are allowed. Black Lives Matter? Allowed. Ukraine flags? Encouraged. Palestine shirt? Five-game ban.
Time for FIFA to Act
If FIFA and UEFA want to pretend to be about “fair play,” then let’s see it. Israel must be banned from FIFA and UEFA — just like Russia was. But it can’t stop there. Israel must also be banned from the Olympics, from the World Championships, from athletics, from every major international sport. Russia was frozen out across the board — so why does Israel get impunity?
And let’s not pretend this would be unprecedented.
📌 South Africa’s Sporting Isolation
- 1964 – South Africa banned from the Olympics over apartheid.
- 1970 – Banned from the Olympic movement entirely.
- 1976 – Expelled from FIFA after years of pressure from African nations.
- 1981–90s – Sporting boycotts spread: cricket, rugby, athletics. South African teams were frozen out of almost every major sport.
- 1992 – Only readmitted to world sport after apartheid ended.
👉 The lesson? The world understood then that you cannot let a racist regime use sport for legitimacy. Why should Israel be any different?
Desmond Tutu: “Apartheid cannot be fought just in the courtroom or in Parliament. Sport is a powerful weapon. When the world refuses to play with South Africa, it says we are an outcast until we change.”
Nelson Mandela: “The boycott of South African sport was one of the most powerful weapons in the struggle against apartheid. It showed the oppressors that the world rejected them, and it gave our people hope.”
Anything less is complicity. Anything less is cowardice.
Football is supposed to be the people’s game. But right now, it’s showing itself to be a propaganda tool — where working-class fans get punished for solidarity while states committing war crimes get rolled out the red carpet.
I’ll finish on what I said already, because I mean it. And I hope it’s not just in Brighton that this happens, but at every football ground and sporting event in this country.
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