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Organizers of International Soccer Tournament for Homeless Urged to Reverse Rejection of Israeli Team
Illustrative: Paris 2024 Olympics – Football – Men’s Group D – Israel vs Paraguay – Parc des Princes, Paris, France – July 27, 2024. Israel fans outside the stadium before the match. Photo: REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier
Organizers of an international soccer tournament for homeless individuals that will take place this year in Norway are being asked to reverse their decision to ban an Israeli team from participating in the competition because of security concerns related to the Israel-Hamas war.
The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international soccer tournament in which teams of men and women who are homeless compete on behalf of their country during the week-long street soccer competition. The 2025 Homeless World Cup will take place from Aug. 23-30 in Oslo, Norway, at the Rådhusplassen (City Hall Square). On average, 64 teams compete each year, according to the tournament’s website.
The project leader for this year’s competition is Knut Haugsvær from The Salvation Army Norway, which represents the Scandinavian country in The Homeless World Cup Foundation (HWCF). Home Base, a nonprofit organization based in Tel Aviv that supports homeless individuals in Israel and helps them transition back into society, annually represents Israel at the Homeless World Cup.
On Jan. 16, HWCF informed Home Base that its selection committee rejected Israel’s application to compete in the tournament this year because of security concerns surrounding the Jewish state’s war against Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip. Israel participated the last time the tournament was held in Norway in 2017.
“Homeless World Cup has current policies in place that guide decisions related to event participation from countries that are in active conflict zones,” HWCF said in a message sent to the Israeli team, which the latter shared on Facebook. “This has affected our positions this year with regard to our members in Russia, Ukraine, and Israel. Given political sensitivities, surrounding participation of said countries in global sporting events, and the pressure it would put on the host country, it is with regret that we are unable to approve an application from Israel.”
The Israeli team commented on the decision in a Facebook post. “It’s disappointing to see how an organization that is supposed to promote equality and fraternity shuts us out of the tournament. The boycott of Israel continues,” the team said. Jony Golan, who has been the coach of Home Base for four years, echoed similar sentiments while also calling on the HWCF to backtrack its denial of Israel’s application.
“This is a huge disappointment for me, especially coming from an organization that claims to uphold the values of equality, inclusion, and bringing people together,” he wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “Boycotts in sports and culture are not a way to bring people closer — they only widen the gaps between us. Football is meant to unite people, especially when it comes to the most vulnerable populations in the world. I don’t know if this decision was made out of fear or ignorance, but one thing is certain: it is a wrong decision. It will have no impact on the situation on the ground but will harm the population which is always the easiest to ignore.”
“There is still time to reverse this decision, still time to give hope to people and restore faith to those who have long since lost trust in any system,” he added. “I still want to believe that there are sane people in this world who know how to see and acknowledge people beyond their flag.”
The Salvation Army Norway on Friday denied accusations that Israel is boycotted or banned from the competition. It attempted to explain in a statement posted on its website that the decision was partially based on limitations on how many teams can compete in the tournament. The charity said although 96 teams applied to participate, 28 of them were rejected. However, capacity problems were not mentioned in the rejection letter sent to Home Base.
“Part of the HWCF’s assessment when allocating places is that, for security reasons, they do not give places to teams from conflict areas. This affects Israel’s opportunities to participate in the championship this year,” Salvation Army Norway added in its statement. “Unfortunately, some have perceived this as Israel being boycotted and banned. This is not correct. Both the HWCF and the Salvation Army are committed to including everyone. We were happy to have Israel participate during the last World Cup in Oslo in 2017, and hope to be able to invite them on the next occasion.”
Ola Grytten, board member of The Salvation Army Norway, told the Norwegian pro-Israel group Med Israel for Fred (MIFF) there is a high security risk surrounding Israel’s participation in the tournament and that the safety of the Israeli team cannot be guaranteed in the competition.
MIFF, which is Europe’s largest non-religious pro-Israel membership organization, said, “we are disappointed that the entire situation in Norway makes it unsafe for homeless Israelis to come.” MIFF also noted that in October 2023, Ukraine participated in the Homeless World Cup despite its war against Russia.
“It says a lot about the conflict — who is willing to threaten homeless Israelis who come to Oslo to play football? And it says a lot about Oslo — is the situation in the Norwegian capital such that neither the Salvation Army nor the Norwegian authorities can ensure the safety of eight homeless football players?” the MIFF added.
Ori Shoham, the manager of the Home Base Israeli team, expressed frustration to the MIFF on Friday regarding the decision and criticized Norway for being unable to ensure the safety of eight homeless soccer players when Israel just last year participated safely in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris with a large delegation.
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Trump Says Iran Must Give Up Dream of Nuclear Weapon or Face Harsh Response
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
President Donald Trump said on Monday he believes Iran is intentionally delaying a nuclear deal with the United States and that it must abandon any drive for a nuclear weapon or face a possible military strike on Tehran’s atomic facilities.
“I think they’re tapping us along,” Trump told reporters after US special envoy Steve Witkoff met in Oman on Saturday with a senior Iranian official.
Both Iran and the United States said on Saturday that they held “positive” and “constructive” talks in Oman. A second round is scheduled for Saturday, and a source briefed on the planning said the meeting was likely to be held in Rome.
The source, speaking to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, said the discussions are aimed at exploring what is possible, including a broad framework of what a potential deal would look like.
“Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said.
Asked if US options for a response include a military strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities, Trump said: “Of course it does.”
Trump said the Iranians need to move fast to avoid a harsh response because “they’re fairly close” to developing a nuclear weapon.
The US and Iran held indirect talks during former President Joe Biden’s term but they made little, if any progress. The last known direct negotiations between the two governments were under then-President Barack Obama, who spearheaded the 2015 international nuclear deal that Trump later abandoned.
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No Breakthrough in Gaza Talks, Egyptian and Palestinian Sources Say
Families and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas gather to demand a deal that will bring back all the hostages held in Gaza, outside a meeting between hostage representatives and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in Jerusalem, Jan. 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
The latest round of talks in Cairo to restore the defunct Gaza ceasefire and free Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said on Monday.
The sources said Hamas had stuck to its position that any agreement must lead to an end to the war in Gaza.
Israel, which restarted its military campaign in Gaza last month after a ceasefire agreed in January unraveled, has said it will not end the war until Hamas is stamped out. The terrorist group has ruled out any proposal that it lay down its arms.
But despite that fundamental disagreement, the sources said a Hamas delegation led by the group’s Gaza Chief Khalil Al-Hayya had shown some flexibility over how many hostages it could free in return for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel should a truce be extended.
An Egyptian source told Reuters the latest proposal to extend the truce would see Hamas free an increased number of hostages. Israeli minister Zeev Elkin, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, told Army Radio on Monday that Israel was seeking the release of around 10 hostages, raised from previous Hamas consent to free five.
Hamas has asked for more time to respond to the latest proposal, the Egyptian source said.
“Hamas has no problem, but it wants guarantees Israel agrees to begin the talks on the second phase of the ceasefire agreement” leading to an end to the war, the Egyptian source said.
AIRSTRIKES
Hamas terrorists freed 33 Israeli hostages in return for hundreds of Palestinian detainees during the six-week first phase of the ceasefire which began in January. But the second phase, which was meant to begin at the start of March and lead to the end of the war, was never launched.
Meanwhile, 59 Israeli hostages remain in the hands of the terrorists. Israel believes up to 24 of them are alive.
Palestinians say the wave of Israeli attacks since the collapse of the ceasefire has been among the deadliest and most intense of the war, hitting an exhausted population surviving in the enclave’s ruins.
In Jabalia, a community on Gaza’s northern edge, rescue workers in orange vests were trying to smash through concrete with a sledgehammer to recover bodies buried underneath a building that collapsed in an Israeli strike.
Feet and a hand of one person could be seen under a concrete slab. Men carried a body wrapped in a blanket. Workers at the scene said as many as 25 people had been killed.
The Israeli military said it had struck there against terrorists planning an ambush.
In Khan Younis in the south, a camp of makeshift tents had been shredded into piles of debris by an airstrike. Families had returned to poke through the rubbish in search of belongings.
“We used to live in houses. They were destroyed. Now, our tents have been destroyed too. We don’t know where to stay,” said Ismail al-Raqab, who returned to the area after his family fled the raid before dawn.
EGYPT’S SISI MEETS QATARI EMIR
The leaders of the two Arab countries that have led the ceasefire mediation efforts, Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, met in Doha on Sunday. The Egyptian source said Sisi had called for additional international guarantees for a truce agreement, beyond those provided by Egypt and Qatar themselves.
US President Donald Trump, who has backed Israel’s decision to resume its campaign and called for the Palestinian population of Gaza to leave the territory, said last week that progress was being made in returning the hostages.
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Iranian Foreign Minister to Visit Moscow Ahead of Second Iran-US Meeting
FILE PHOTO: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks as he meets with his Iraqi counterpart Fuad Hussein, in Baghdad, Iraq October 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Saad/File Photo
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi will visit Russia this week ahead of a planned second round of talks between Tehran and Washington aimed at resolving Iran’s decades-long nuclear stand-off with the West.
Araqchi and US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff held talks in Oman on Saturday, during which Omani envoy Badr al-Busaidi shuttled between the two delegations sitting in different rooms at his palace in Muscat.
Both sides described the talks in Oman as “positive,” although a senior Iranian official told Reuters the meeting “was only aimed at setting the terms of possible future negotiations.”
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Italy had agreed to host the talks’ second round, and Iraq’s state news agency said Araqchi told his Iraqi counterpart that talks would be held “soon” in the Italian capital under Omani mediation.
Tehran has approached the talks warily, doubting the likelihood of an agreement and suspicious of Trump, who has threatened to bomb Iran if there is no deal.
Washington aims to halt Tehran’s sensitive uranium enrichment work – regarded by the United States, Israel and European powers as a path to nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for civilian energy production.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Araqchi will “discuss the latest developments related to the Muscat talks” with Russian officials.
Moscow, a party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact, has supported Tehran’s right to have a civilian nuclear program.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on vital state matters, distrusts the United States, and Trump in particular.
But Khamenei has been forced to engage with Washington in search of a nuclear deal due to fears that public anger at home over economic hardship could erupt into mass protests and endanger the existence of the clerical establishment, four Iranian officials told Reuters in March.
Tehran’s concerns were exacerbated by Trump’s speedy revival of his “maximum pressure” campaign when he returned to the White House in January.
During his first term, Trump ditched Tehran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six world powers in 2018 and reimposed crippling sanctions on the Islamic regime.
Since 2019, Iran has far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on uranium enrichment, producing stocks at a high level of fissile purity, well above what Western powers say is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to that required for nuclear warheads.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has raised the alarm regarding Iran’s growing stock of 60% enriched uranium, and reported no real progress on resolving long-running issues, including the unexplained presence of uranium traces at undeclared sites.
IAEA head Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Wednesday, Iranian media reported, in an attempt to narrow gaps between Tehran and the agency over unresolved issues.
“Continued engagement and cooperation with the agency is essential at a time when diplomatic solutions are urgently needed,” Grossi said on X on Monday.
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