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Europe Threatens to Pull Out of the World Cup
European football is gearing up for a massive showdown in Brussels, and the stakes couldn't be higher. The question on the table? Should European countries band together and refuse to play in the next World Cup as a protest against the Gaza conflict and Israel's involvement in international football?
If this actually happens, it would be enormous. Europe sends a third of all World Cup teams and nearly all the biggest names in the game. Pull them out, and suddenly the tournament looks very different—the rest of the world would have to sit up and pay attention. Countries like Spain, whose government has already called for Israel to be banned from competitions, and Norway, which has long used football to make a stand on human rights, are leading the push.
But here's the key bit: they're not interested in one or two countries making a lonely protest that gets ignored. Lise Klaveness, who runs Norway's football association, has said quite plainly that going it alone doesn't work. If they're going to make FIFA and UEFA actually listen, every European nation needs to act together. One unified boycott carries weight; a few scattered objections don't.
So it all comes down to this Brussels meeting. Will Europe's football heavyweights actually put their values before the game itself? If they stick together, they reckon they can force real change in a way no single country ever could on its own.