Due to the terrible events that have been unfolding in Israel and Palestine, several related fixtures that were originally scheduled to take place earlier this month did not go ahead as intended.
Owing to the security situation, UEFA had to postpone all football matches scheduled in Israel in the month of October, including men’s, women’s and youth national-team fixtures. In light of this and in consultation with the teams involved, three matches have been rescheduled as close as possible to the existing November international windows, as follows:
Kosovo v. Israel, UEFA EURO 2024 qualifiers, from 15 October to 12 November 2023
Kazakhstan v. Israel, UEFA Women’s Nations League, from 26 October to 23 November 2023
Israel v. Kazakhstan, UEFA Women’s Nations League, from 31 October to 26 November 2023
The Israel v. Switzerland EURO 2024 qualifying match has been rescheduled for 15 November, i.e. within the existing window.
At UEFA’s request and in light of the exceptional circumstances involved, the Bureau of the FIFA Council has approved an exception to articles 1 paragraph 6 and 1bis paragraph 5 of Annexe 1 to the Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players regarding the mandatory release of players for the rescheduled matches of the Israel men’s and women’s national teams. It was further decided that this would apply with the restriction that mandatory release would apply for a maximum of one player per any club not affiliated to either of the participating member associations of a given match, and that the release period would begin 2 days before the match in question.
FIFA President Gianni Infantino recently wrote to the presidents of both the Israel Football Association and the Palestine Football Association to express his condolences over the horrendous violence and called for an immediate end to the hostilities and to the suffering of the people of both Israel and Palestine.