UEFA Cancels All Competition In Israel Till Further Notice

Due to the “current safety and security situation” in the country, no UEFA matches will be played in Israel “until further notice,” according to the governing body of European football.

UEFA has also announced that Maccabi Haifa’s UEFA Europa League Group F match against Villarreal has been moved from Thursday, October 26 to Wednesday, December 6.

The UEFA Europa Conference League match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Zorya Luhansk, originally scheduled for October 26, has been rescheduled for Saturday, November 25.

UEFA said in a statement on Thursday: “After a thorough evaluation of the current safety and security situation in the whole territory of Israel, the UEFA Executive Committee decided that no UEFA competition matches shall be played in Israel until further notice.

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“The Israel Football Association and its clubs Maccabi Haifa FC and Maccabi Tel-Aviv have been requested to propose alternative venues/stadiums (which must comply with all applicable UEFA regulations) outside the territory of Israel for their home matches to be used for as long as this decision remains in force.”

Maccabi Haifa currently sits at the bottom of Group F with just one point from their first two Europa League games.

Maccabi Tel Aviv, managed by former Premier League striker Robbie Keane, are third in Group B with three points after two Conference League games.

UEFA has also announced that the European qualifier between Belgium and Sweden, which was called off at halftime on Monday night due to a terrorist attack in Brussels that killed two Swedish nationals, will be counted as a 1-1 draw.

UEFA said: “To take the mentioned decision, the Executive Committee took note that it had proved impossible to play the remaining part of the match on the following day.

“Both the Royal Belgian Football Association and the Swedish Football Association, given the circumstances, explicitly expressed their desire not to play the remaining match time and to consider the result at the half-time interval (1-1) as final.

“The result of this match does not impact the qualification of Group F since Belgium is already mathematically qualified for the UEFA EURO 2024 final tournament (together with Austria) and Sweden is mathematically eliminated.

“The respective fixtures do not allow any date to be used in the upcoming November international window, when the preliminary group stage of the competition must be concluded, to be followed by the play-off draw and final tournament draw.”