Fans should burn Messi shirts if he plays in Jerusalem: Palestine official
RAMALLAH: The Palestine Football Association chief urged fans to burn pictures of Argentina striker Lionel Messi and replicas of his shirt if he plays against
Israel in Jerusalem next weekend.
Twice world champions Argentina will play at Jerusalem’s Teddy Kollek Stadium on Saturday 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”.
The stadium that will host the match is in west Jerusalem. However, the status of the city is highly sensitive. The match was slated to be played in Haifa but Israeli authorities contributed funding for it to be moved to Jerusalem, irking Palestinians following U.S. President Donald Trump’s recognition of the city as Israel’s capital. The U.S. embassy was moved there last month.
“The Israeli government has turned a sports match into a political tool. As was widely covered in media, the match now is being played in order to celebrate the
‘70th anniversary of Israel’,” part of Rajoub’s letter said.
“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.”