Jibril Rajoub, the President of Palestinian Football Associastion, has been suspended for one year for inciting fans to burn Lionel Messi’s jerseys,National Daily gathered.
FIFA, world football’s governing body, has released a statement via their official website confirming the punishment.
“The Disciplinary Committee has sanctioned the President of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), Jibril Rajoub, with a 12-month match suspension and a fine of CHF 20,000 for breaching article 53 (Inciting hatred and violence) of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, following media statements he gave calling on football fans to target the Argentinian Football Association and burn jerseys and pictures of Lionel Messi,” reads a FIFA statement.
Argentina were set to play Israel national team at Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium in early June in a World Cup warm-up match that has attracted huge interest among the Israeli fans, mainly because of Messi’s planned participation.
But the Palestinians are not happy that the match will be held in Jerusalem and Palestinian FA chief Jibril Rajoub wrote to Claudio Tapia, the head of the Argentinian FA, last week accusing Israel of using the match as a ‘political tool’.
Rajoub declared a campaign against Argentina and particularly Messi, noting he has millions of fans across the Arab and Islamic world, Asia and Africa.
‘He’s a big symbol so we are going to target him personally and we call on all to burn his picture and his shirt and to abandon him. We still hope that Messi will not come,’ he told reporters back in June.