The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), the governing body for soccer in Europe, this week may expel Israel from competition. While Europeans may justify the move as a means to voice objection to Israel’s counterterrorism operations in Gaza, the roots of European football’s efforts to expel Israel run deeper.
On May 31, 2025, France’s Paris Saint-Germain football club won the European championship for the first time after dominating France for over a decade. Paris Saint-Germain owes its success to the commitment of then-President Nicolas Sarkozy and infusions of Qatari money. Sarkozy had grown up a Paris Saint-Germain fan, and he used his influence as president of France to seek Qatari funding. Today, the sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority, owns 20 percent of Champs-Elysées.
The Qatari influence operation mirrors Russia’s investment in London a decade earlier.
On November 23, 2010, Sarkozy joined Michel Platini, UEFA president, and Qatar’s then-Crown Prince Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani for lunch. Their meeting had three outcomes. First, Sarkozy persuaded al-Thani to buy Paris Saint-Germain. Second, Platini voted for Qatar to host the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup and, third, Al Jazeera acquired the rights to broadcast the French soccer competition Ligue 1 beginning just months later.
The Qatari influence operation mirrors Russia’s investment in London a decade earlier, including a Russian oligarch’s 2003 purchase of the Chelsea Football Club, transforming it into a superpower. The biggest difference between the two was that Qatar saw no reason to rely on intermediary billionaires.
The man at the center of Qatar’s sports influence operation is Nasser al-Khelaifi, a retired tennis player and a minister without portfolio in Qatar’s cabinet. In June 2011, al-Thani appointed al-Khelaifi to be a member of Qatar Investment Authority’s board and the chairman of its subsidiary, Qatar Sports Investments. The same month, Qatar Sports Investments bought Paris Saint-Germain, and al-Khelaifi appointed himself its new president.
Platini, meanwhile, expanded Al Jazeera broadcast rights for several European competitions. In 2014, Qatar Sports Investments launched the beIN television network. Al-Khelaifi appointed himself as its chair, and Al Jazeera transferred its rights to beIN. Documents, meanwhile, uncovered the Qatari bribery behind FIFA’s decision to allow Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup.
It did not matter. Qatari money talked, and FIFA and UEFA authorities gladly swept aside concerns over Qatar’s human rights record, especially on LGBTQ+ issues and labor abuses, as well as the alcohol ban during the tournament. FIFA even moved the tournament to winter to accommodate Qatari weather conditions, disrupting the various European teams’ regular schedules.
Once obscure, the European Clubs Association today jointly runs the Champions League with UEFA.
Al-Khelaifi found a more cooperative partner in Platini’s successor, Slovenian Aleksander Čeferin. Al-Khelaifi, meanwhile, joined UEFA’s executive committee in 2019 and, on April 21, 2021, he became chair of the European Clubs Association. Once obscure, the European Clubs Association today jointly runs the Champions League with UEFA. Al-Khelaifi’s interests—especially in the European Clubs Association—allow him to set policy, overruling any remaining dissent from within UEFA.
None of this is news to law enforcement. Al-Khelaifi has been in and out of courtrooms for the past five years, though he has managed to outmaneuver various corruption charges. In 2023, French prosecutors confirmed that they were investigating al-Khelaifi after French-Algerian lobbyist Tayeb Benabderrahmane claimed that al-Khelaifi had kidnapped and tortured him in 2020. On February 13, 2025, French authorities indicted al-Khelaifi for “complicity in vote-buying,” “infringement on voting freedom,” and “complicity in abuse of power” in a Lagardere Group board meeting. Qatar Investments Authority is Lagardere Group’s largest shareholder. In response, Qatar threatened to pull its investments from French enterprises.
Qatar’s influence reaches the commercial side of the sport, too. Qatar Airways is the shirt sponsor for multiple teams and a lucrative partner of the Champions League. This month, it became the first-ever presenting partner of the Ballon d’Or, the annual award show that France Football magazine organizes to recognize the player of the year.
After Israel attacked Hamas leaders in Qatar, Al-Khelaifi condemned the attack. He now leverages his UEFA and European Clubs Association roles to carry out the Qatari interest. While Čeferin says he has good relations with the Israeli federation, he has better relations with Qatar. In August, he allowed the display of anti-Israel banners during the UEFA Super Cup match featuring Paris Saint-Germain.
[Nasser al-Khelaifi] leverages his UEFA and European Clubs Association roles to carry out the Qatari interest.
As Qatar pushes the Europeans toward an Israel ban, the Trump administration could push back. FIFA President Gianni Infantino is close to President Donald Trump; their relationship was key to organizing the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Securing visas for players, team staff, and tourists to the United States is now among Infantino’s biggest concern.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio should use this leverage. Qatar nearly owns UEFA. But until the competition ends, the United States has a temporary hold on FIFA, which sits atop all soccer governing bodies and must approve the ban on Israel for it to take effect. It should use its influence to protect Israel in the near term, even if Qatar’s grip on UEFA gives it a much better ability to make soccer Judenrein in the long term.
