Lord Triesman has become the second ex-Football Association chairman to condemn its slow response to the terror attacks in Israel, accusing it and the sport’s other leaders of pandering to “wealthy Middle East states”.
The Jewish peer and former Government minister, who became the first independent FA chair in 2010, joined his successor David Bernstein in denouncing the organisation’s inaction since the bloodshed that saw more than 1,000 people killed by Hamas terrorists over the weekend.
He did so amid mounting anger from British Jews over the response to the attacks by the FA, which had on Tuesday still to begin talks over whether to illuminate the Wembley arch in the colours of Israel’s flag when England play Australia this week. Fifa and Uefa are also yet to make any decision on whether they will request or encourage any tributes to take place at matches over the course of the next week.
The delay in deciding on the gesture is in stark contrast to when Russia invaded Ukraine last year, which resulted in the arch being lit in the colour of the latter’s flag barely 24 hours later. The stadium’s showpiece structure was also illuminated in recent years to show support for the NHS, the LGBT+ community and also to mark the deaths of Queen Elizabeth II and Pele.
Among the FA’s biggest sponsors is the Dubai-owned airline Emirates – the title sponsor of the FA Cup – a partnership that is part of a broader trend of football’s governing bodies and clubs’ increasing dependency on cash from Arab countries who have been hostile to Israel.
Lord Triesman told Telegraph Sport: “There has been an abject unwillingness to take any action which might upset the wealthy Middle East states which now wield such power in football finances.
“And what might upset them is what is unwelcome to the militias they support. It was the same indulgence of regimes like Vladimir Putin’s. Anything can be tolerated so long as football can still hear the rattle of the cash tills.”
He added of the FA’s inaction: “It’s inexplicable that they don’t see this in the same light that they saw Ukraine. That can only be because they don’t think it’s important or significant. What is there to think about?
“There were people that thought that we shouldn’t do anything that would upset the Russian bear, a nuclear armed force.”
The Israeli flag was projected onto 10 Downing Street and other major London landmarks in the wake of the weekend’s attacks and Lord Triesman, a Labour peer, said the Government and opposition were “100 per cent united and are using the same language” about what had unfolded.
“It’s being called out for what it is: terrorism,” he said, before invoking the impending launch by the Government of an independent football regulator.
“I would’ve thought that the FA, and football authorities that after all are going to come up against significant pressure in the next legislative round, might have – not in a cowardly way – followed the politicians.”
The Jewish Leadership Council was equally scathing about the FA’s response.
It’s co-chair, Claudia Mendoza, said: “We’ve seen FA support during other atrocities, other conflicts, whether it’s been Black Lives Matter or Ukraine. And, frankly, its slowness to respond to this is indicative of the issues that Israel and Jews face in that the support always has to be begged for, always has to be explained, when it just should be instinctive.
“In a world where we talk about unconscious bias, this seems to be a very conscious bias against attacks against Jews.
“We can’t underestimate the ferociousness and savagery of what we’ve seen and it shouldn’t need anyone to dig deep for anyone to understand what we’re seeing and for it to be called out and for support to be shown.
“I have spoken to someone at the FA and, without revealing too much, I think the person that I’ve spoken to is himself as frustrated by how long this is taking to action.
“Football and culture and sport have a massive impact on people. The lighting of 10 Downing Street and the Foreign Office and parliament, it’s performative, but it’s meaningful. Because Jews will see that and they will know that they’re not alone.
“It shouldn’t take this sort of savagery for support, and, yet, we’re still not seeing it in the places and the spaces where it matters.
“If it was applied consistently and they said that they just don’t do that sort of thing then we could probably accept it. But given the inconsistency here with the support that they’ve shown with respect to other conflicts, it does leave you asking a question: why is Israel and why are the Jews different?”
Speaking after the UK and Ireland were named as Euro 2028 hosts in Nyon on Tuesday, the FA’s chief executive Mark Bullingham said: “We genuinely haven’t had that meeting yet. You can imagine over the last three days we have been very focused on everything here. We have seen the terrible events unfold on our television screens as everyone else has. Clearly, it is tragic and we will look at what we do over the next couple of days.”
The British Olympic Association on Wednesday became the first major UK sporting body to condemn the weekend’s attacks publicly, saying: “The British Olympic Association (BOA) universally condemns the devastating attack on Israel over the weekend.
“We compete against and alongside Israel in both Olympic and European competition, most recently at the European Games in Krakow and the European Youth Festival in Maribor, and many people in the UK and at Team GB have very close ties to the country and its athletes.
“It is not yet clear if any Israeli athletes have been directly targeted but almost all of them and their families will have been affected.
“The chair of the BOA, Sir Hugh Robertson, has today written personally to the Israeli NOC [National Olympic Committee] and we stand by to do anything to help and support them at this difficult time.”
