Mayor of Udine adamant that the Italy-Israel game set for October should be postponed until a more 'appropriate' time

 UDINE - A firm stance comes from Alberto Felice De Toni, mayor of Udine, the city that will host, for the second time, a football match between Italy and Israel valid for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.

 According to Il Messaggero Veneto, following numerous appeals calling for the exclusion of the Tel Aviv national team from international sports competitions, and increasing pressure to cancel the match, the mayor proposes an alternative solution: postpone the match. This, he says, is necessary both for political reasons and for practical concerns, particularly the serious risk to public order.

 Already at the beginning of summer, Mayor De Toni had warned of the danger, stating that “Udine is capable of doing its part in terms of security, but honestly, we are worried.”

 The city had already hosted an Italy-Israel match, also on October 14, in 2024. At the time, the city council had initially denied its patronage of the event, only to later reverse the decision to avoid controversy. The match took place without clashes, despite a parallel pro-Palestinian demonstration. However, for over a year, De Toni has emphasized that, in his view, it is inappropriate to host a sporting event featuring Israel while the war in Gaza continues.

 “Faced with a tragedy unlike any other in the past eighty years, in the face of so much suffering, I say: let’s stop. Playing now would be inappropriate,” the mayor reiterates. “The stadium is managed by the Udinese football club, the decision to host national team matches lies with the FIGC (Italian Football Federation), and the match is organized by UEFA. As a municipality, we are on the third level – we’re called to deal with public order, under the coordination of the prefecture.”

 “There were protests a year ago, and there will inevitably be more in a month and a half,” De Toni notes, arguing that “it would be appropriate to wait for better times, to postpone the match and reschedule it: I believe there is time, and unfortunately, I fear that within a month and a half we will not have reached a ceasefire.”

 Still, his proposal is to postpone the Italy-Israel match and reschedule it at a later date. And one year after the previous controversy (and the same match), there is a key difference: the mayor now has the support of 20,000 signatures, collected through an online petition launched by the political group Possibile, calling for the cancellation of the match. Not to mention a formal complaint filed by a lawyer against the Israeli national team.

rs