How Norway vs Israel became football’s most controversial fixture
Norway can almost reach out and touch men’s World Cup qualification.
Five wins from five sees Stale Solbakken’s free-scoring side, fuelled by the goals of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland, top their group with a flawless record, and the next month could see an end to Norway’s 26-year wait to feature in a major tournament.
On Saturday, Norway could take another step towards the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico when Israel visit a sold-out Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo. The hosts can guarantee at least a qualification play-off should they maintain their 100 per cent record, moving closer to their first World Cup finals since France 1998.
But the game has been overshadowed by politics, with Norway’s football authorities using the game to make a stance over the ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.
All proceeds from the weekend’s game have already been pledged to provide emergency aid in Gaza, with Norwegian Football Federation (NFF) president Lise Klaveness saying in a statement in August that it could not “remain indifferent to the humanitarian suffering”.
Israel are used to this: they are more than accustomed to the heightened environment around their matches and the enhanced level of security. “Not much higher than usual,” said their captain, Eli Dasa, which in practice is understood to mean 16 Mossad agents will be present. Nonetheless the added edge around this particular fixture has been inescapable.
It was evident in the grilling, much of it hostile, dished out by Israeli journalists to the Norwegian Football Federation president, Lise Klaveness, on Friday afternoon. The NFF’s stance that Israel should be banned from international football, repeated publicly by Klaveness, has been made more stridently than that of any other European nation and it is one reason for a souring of relations. A decision to donate the proceeds from Saturday’s game to Doctors Without Borders’ work in Gaza also drew an affronted response from the Israeli Football Association, which felt a point was being made.
Uefa was close to voting on a ban for Israel, which would not have applied to Fifa-run World Cup qualifiers without the global governing body following suit, after the United Nations concluded damningly that the state has committed genocide in Gaza. That idea was put on hold as Donald Trump’s peace plan gathered momentum last week. Klaveness repeated several times that she had not been the primary driving force behind those moves and reiterated, too, that the illegal presence of Israeli teams in occupied Palestinian territory is the reason for her position.
“It’s not an effort to ban Israel [in particular], it’s about a rules-based system,” she said. “Like all people, we’re very happy there is a peace agreement. It’s more important than the game that the bombs stop and the hostages go home. When we’ve talked about sanctions it’s about breaches of Fifa law. That should be a continued discussion.”
The NFF has never considered taking matters into their own hands and refusing to play Israel but campaigners such as Line Khateeb, who leads the Palestine Committee in Norway, believe this game should not be taking place. “Not at all,” she says. “Israel shouldn’t be included in an international football arena when they are violating international law and preventing Palestinian football players from playing. As long as Israel’s occupation withstands, Palestinians don’t have a chance to play football, to live, to learn or move freely.
“We won’t disturb the game, we want Norway to win. We will protest, but after this game there will be other games involving youth teams or in European competitions. They should reject receiving Israel for Norwegian football teams.”
