On February 16, Palestinian footballers, clubs, landowners, and advocacy groups — including Scottish Sport for Palestine, Irish Sport for Palestine, and the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor — filed a 120-page complaint with the International Criminal Court’s Office of the Prosecutor. The targets: FIFA president Gianni Infantino and UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin.

The complaint accuses both men of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute — specifically, the transfer of civilian population into occupied territories, and apartheid. As Al Jazeera reported, the case centers on a concrete practice: FIFA and UEFA continue to authorize Israeli settlement clubs — teams that operate on land seized from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank — to compete in official leagues run by the Israel Football Association. Some of these clubs have played in UEFA competitions. Palestinians are not permitted to attend matches, play for, or manage these clubs. The complaint describes this as textbook apartheid.

The filing marks the first time leaders of a major global sporting body have been named in an ICC complaint of this nature. It follows years of demands — from the Palestine Football Association, UN human rights experts, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and members of the European Parliament — that FIFA apply its own statute, which prohibits member associations from organizing matches on the territory of another member association without consent.

Infantino’s response to calls for accountability has been to argue that banning Israel would be “a defeat,” and to explore changing FIFA’s statutes to prevent any country from being excluded from football for the actions of its government. He has also, notably, awarded Donald Trump a “FIFA Peace Prize.” As former UN special rapporteur Michael Lynk stated: “FIFA and UEFA are sportswashing the illegal Israeli occupation by allowing the Israeli Football Association to include clubs based in the illegal settlements to participate in their domestic leagues.”

Since October 2023, more than 1,000 Palestinian sportspeople have been killed in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel has destroyed 184 sports facilities in Gaza and damaged 81 others. The ICC complaint calls what has happened to Palestinian sport “athleticide.” The ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor will now conduct a preliminary examination to determine whether to open a formal investigation.