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LONDON: Major football federations are being pressured to boycott matches against Israel as part of a new global campaign launched by high-profile organizations and figures from the world’s most popular sport. 

The #GameOverIsrael campaign was launched on Tuesday by a major coalition of human rights groups, fan associations, former players and influencers across nine major footballing countries: Belgium, England, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Scotland and Spain.

As part of the campaign, organizers are calling on the football federations of their countries to boycott Israel’s national team and club teams, and prevent Israeli footballers from playing in their domestic leagues.

A press release issued by the campaign said it aims to “take a principled stand against Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinian life and infrastructure, including sports facilities and athletes in Gaza.”

Through the power of football fans, “ordinary people across the world can join the chorus and demand accountability by joining a local protest and applying pressure on the football federations, who run the game they love and support, to take immediate action,” it added.

Israel has long used sports and culture to whitewash its violations of international law and human rights, said Richard Falk, former UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Territories.

He added: “Sporting governing bodies have been shamefully complicit during this genocide. It’s perfectly legitimate and morally imperative to demand that football federations across Europe and the world boycott Israel. Normalcy is complicity in this abnormal time of prolonged genocide.”

The campaign follows a series of measures by European countries to pressure Israel to end the Gaza war.

In August, the Italian Football Coaches’ Association called on the country’s football federation to demand Israel’s suspension from competitions.

Spain launched nine measures aimed at encouraging an end to the Gaza war, including an arms embargo.

The #GameOverIsrael campaign called on the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the country’s body for the sport, to pursue a total boycott of ties to Israel.

Meanwhile, Norway’s federation pledged to donate ticket revenue from its FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifier match against Israel on Oct. 11 to humanitarian aid in Gaza.

Former UN human rights official Craig Mokhiber said: “We are living through a dark moment in history in which a people, locked in the chains of apartheid, are being exterminated before our eyes. None of us will be able to say we did not know. Inaction in such circumstances is complicity.”

He added: “But we do have the power to act. Sport is a powerful social force. And football, ‘the beautiful game,’ can be a powerful channel for action.

“Demand that your football federation, and all federations, boycott Israel. Keep football beautiful.”

The #GameOverIsrael campaign is being advised by British-Palestinian plastic surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah and organizations including the Gaza Tribunal, the Hind Rajab Foundation and Tech for Palestine.

Prominent supporters of the campaign include former footballer and BBC commentator Gary Lineker; former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis; Irish actor Liam Cunningham; British journalist and author Matt Kennard; Irish performer and activist Tadhg Hickey; British surgeon Nick Maynard; and Bobby Vylan of punk rap duo Bob Vylan.

Love Rovers Hate Racism, a fan group of the Irish club Shamrock Rovers FC, said: “We are approaching the two-year mark of the genocide in Gaza. What more is there to say? Why haven’t football federations boycotted Israel?

“They’re supposed to represent football and the fans. It is unfathomable, unconscionable. They should be ashamed. We demand they act now and boycott Israel and get them off our pitches.”

TOKYO: One record down, and maybe one more to go for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
McLaughlin-Levrone finished her 400-meter semifinal at the world championships Tuesday in 48.29 seconds, shattering a 19-year-old American mark held by Sanya Richards-Ross by .41 seconds.
It was the fastest time of 2025, the seventh fastest time ever, and it makes the thought of breaking the 40-year-old record of 47.60 seem totally possible in the final Thursday.
“Honored, for sure,” McLaughlin-Levrone said about breaking the US record she’s been targeting since she moved over from the hurdles. “I definitely wasn’t expecting that time. It just shows the fitness is there. I’m excited for the finals and grateful to have taken down a record by an amazing woman.”
Richards-Ross, the best American 400 runner of her generation, set the record of 48.70 in 2006 and won the 400 at the London Olympics six years later.
Now, all eyes are on the mark set by an East German, Marita Koch, in 1985. It is one of the few remaining records from the Eastern Bloc era. No woman has broken 48 seconds since Koch’s record, and even McLaughlin-Levrone said that should be the first goal before thinking about the mark.
But McLaughlin-Levrone has a knack for breaking records. She’s done it six times in her “main” event, the 400 hurdles, which she took a break from this year to see what she could do in the 400 flat. Her record in the hurdles stands at 50.37.
McLaughlin said that while she was surprised to see the 48.29 pop up on a sultry night in the same stadium where she won the hurdles — with a world-record time — four years ago in the Tokyo Olympics, “The last 30 meters were a little reserved.”
“But it wasn’t surprising because I know the work that has been put in. It’s really just about executing, and I’m grateful that it showed me it’s there.”
McLaughlin-Levrone, who trains with renowned coach Bobby Kersee, said she’s been working with a former UCLA runner Willington Wright to get her ready for the rigors of the world championships.
“He’s a quarter-miler who’s really strong, helping me with my fitness and simulating what those rounds are going to feel like,” she said. “He did a great job at that.”