Today Scotland play Israel.
Thoughts of a fan, and a long term advocate of the Scottish women's game.
At the FIFA Congress on the 17th May 2024 the Palestinian FA, with support from Jordan, called for the exclusion of the Israel Football Association from FIFA. A response to the continued and relentless assault on their homeland by the Israeli government.
In the latest, in a long line of abstentions of duty, the Swiss head of football’s world governing body Gianni Infantino decided to nuzzle himself in legalities and PR claiming that, "Football should not and should never become a hostage for politics and always remain a vector for peace, a source of hope, a force of good, uniting people rather than dividing.”
Unsurprisingly, during one of the many instances of Infantino’s tenure those proclamations have lacked authority. Politics, have in fact, been a definitive factor; including the most recent Euro 2025 qualification draw. A geo-political concoction that left the Scotland women’s national team and the Scottish Football Association with the unenviable task of preparing for an international double header that an increasing majority do not want to see played.
When the draw was made in March the pairing of Scotland and Israel in Group B only came to pass as a result of a completely different, long-running situation in the Balkans. One which led to Israel being the only eligible nation of the three remaining sides that could be drawn alongside Scotland, Serbia and Slovakia in Group B2 (Kosovo and Bosnia & Herzegovina the others).
As a fan, and somebody who has gone to bat for women’s football in Scotland more than most in the last ten years, the sight of Israel in Pot Four made my heart sink.
My first SWNT international experience was against Israel at Tynecastle in 2012. A game that nobody in the current media landscape can recall. Scotland would win 8-0 but it was a game as memorable for the Palestinian flags and protests that wafted through the air as it was for the heftiness of victory. At the time it felt a novelty, a circus on the periphery of the game, but as I’ve grown older and learned more I’ve understood what those protests mean. The impact that actions in the stands had on the pitch that day.
Nearly twelve years later, and two years after I lost my shit in the stands for a Scott McTominay winner against the same opposition in the men’s game at a packed out Hampden, the same seemed likely to happen again. Tonight though, in the stands at least, that won’t be the case after the Scottish FA announced on 21st May, ten days before kick off, that the match would be contested behind closed doors. As will be the return leg in Hungary four days later.
This announcement came after those who had previously attended SWNT matches or had been members of the Scotland Supporters Club had bought their tickets. Perhaps an attempt to keep fans in but equally one that could be viewed as the delaying of the inevitable.
For many the belief is that Scotland should boycott these games. That there are things bigger than football. The How’s Your Touch Podcast this week had a considered discussion about why they will not be covering the game. It’s a decision I respect and before doors were closed one that fans could have participated in too. Tonight’s game will see a protest led by the Gaza Genocide Emergency Committee take place outside the national stadium but for the players and organisation the stakes are much higher.
I get it, and, in an attempt to unpack further my feelings, two weeks ago I travelled to Dublin as Bohemian FC hosted Palestine in a women’s international friendly, the first time a Palestinian side of any kind had played on European soil.
That game took place on the 76th anniversary of the Nakba (translated to The Catastrophe), an event that saw over 750,000 Palestinian Arabs geographically, physically and spiritually displaced and at a time, in the present, where thousands more are being so once again.
It raised tens of thousands of pounds for charities in Palestine and while there was defiance in the air, the overriding feeling was a desire for peace and for it all to be over. (If you want to understand more on my thoughts from that day you can read about it via my feature on The Atlantic Dispatch).
The next day, as I slipped between the bars of the Irish capital, sipping pints of Guinness in-between fine tuning submissions, my abiding thought was of a night that stood for something and how much modern football needs that, even if sometimes what is being stood for does not directly align with what you believe.
That pressure to make a stand is what Scotland now feels itself under.
This is not the first time in recent history that a Scotland women’s national team campaign has been impacted by a global conflict. As part of the 2023 World Cup Qualifying SWNT were required to travel to the Polish border town of Rzeszów to face Ukraine at the height of the Russian invasion.
I was there that day (the only “media” to make that trip) and much like that night in Dublin, being in Rzeszów as the Ukrainian team took to the pitch wrapped in their national flags, I felt part of an action driving towards a more tolerant and peaceful world.
There are questions to be asked around the messaging from Hampden ahead of this game, visible leadership from those with ultimate power absent as Pedro Martinéz Losa and his players are left to face the fire. However, the inaction of UEFA and FIFA have hung the SFA out to dry and its hard not to question if this had been a men’s international window whether the passivity from those who run the game would have been allowed to continue.
IF, capitals intentional, Scotland were to boycott at this late stage it would severely hinder any hopes of progress to next summer’s European Championships in Switzerland. A significant price to pay not just for players and fans but financially, as Scotland once again miss out on the benefits that qualifying for a major tournament finals would bring. The argument is that these concessions would be a small price to pay against the horrors currently occurring but sometimes the equivalencies do not always tally.
What some may be unaware of is that a boycott has already happened in the Euro 2025 Qualifying campaign. In League C Group 1 Lithuania withdrew from their matches against Belarus. A result of Belarusian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
UEFA have since awarded both games as 3-0 wins to Belarus and fined the Lithuanian Football Federation 5,000 euros. A precedent with consequences exist although the misunderstanding around a perceived gesture by the Ireland WU17 international side, which made global news, shows the hairpin trigger nature of any such actions. The FAI later having to confirm that in this instance protest was not the aim.
Protest remains an option though and again there is a recent example to reflect upon when before kick off of the Champions League final between Barcelona and Olympique Lyonnais at San Mames in Bilbao, two accredited personnel took to the pitch as the UWCL anthem played over the stadium tannoy. A Palestinian flag with the words “Stop Genozide” placed in the foreground of the spectacle’s pre-game money shot. The assumption being that punishment is not far way.
One of the many reasons I continue to go to bat for the Scottish women’s national team is that they have never been afraid to stand for a cause. It’s perhaps at this point where many have found themselves looking for answers.
When they believed the SFA were treating them unfairly they took a stand. In the weeks following Hungary’s appointment of an anti-LGBT+ administration to their government Rachel Corsie took to the field with a rainbow band around her bicep. They took the knee for Black Lives Matter. Huddled in solidarity as the NWSL abuse revelations became more widely known and consistently provide visible role models for the next generation.
There was a suggestion from Scotland's captain that some form of solidarity may take place and this week former SWNT international Jen Beattie and Balon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati were two of a number of prominent women’s footballers to share the AI-generated All Eyes on Rafah image that reached over forty million stories. However, at present the current members of the SWNT squad have so far been silent. Not that there is an easy answer as their actions, one way or another, will come with consequence.
Hamas’ attacks on 7th October 2023 and the Israeli deaths that came with it should not have happened, nor should the decades of conflict that preceded it. The remaining hostages should be returned but there also has to be an end to the disproportionate response by the Israeli state.
A response that has led to the deaths of tens of thousands more and the displacement from homes now built on limb-strewn rubble. The bombing of hospitals trying to heal and the killing of children who’s only crime is having been born into a war zone. The unforgivable barrage on safe zones, the politicians gleefully signing missiles and the politicians saying nothing when they claim to want our voice.
I have to believe that everyone in Israel does not feel that this is the solution but if Israel playing football as part of the current climate is truly OK then why does it not feel that way?
For any other match day the media and marketing machine would have kicked into action. The badge of the Israeli FA would be displayed on the entrance of Hampden as it is for any other game. There would be fans in the stands at a time when Scotland really fucking needs them and the Israeli FA would put up players and coaches for comment as they would for any other game. None of these things have came to pass.
The continuation of a massacre has to stop and until it does Israel cannot be allowed to continue to operate in the sporting shadows.
I sat down to write this piece in the hope of finding clarity on what I should do. On the one hand I should walk away, be distant from a game that many say shouldn’t be played. On the other, I will be one of the few with the opportunity to tell the story from the inside. Not to be complicit but to understand the impact that protests will truly bring.
Nobody with peace at heart wants this game to happen but whether you are on the inside or out, we all should know how it feels.
Leading the Line has always been a subscription service but just now that will not be the case. If you read this, and have the funds available I want to point you to the following places, promoting peace and providing support to those who’ve had their choices taken away.
Palestine for Life // Medical Aid for Palestinians // Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund