FA admits it ‘hurt’ Jewish community by not lighting up Wembley arch for Israel

The FA has admitted it caused “hurt in the Jewish community” by refusing to light up the arch at Wembley stadium in support of Israel after it was attacked by Hamas.

Players from England and Australia wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence at a friendly match last Friday night.

However, the FA’s decision not to light the Wembley arch in Israel’s colours was met with widespread criticism from British Jews, including Rabbi Alex Goldberg, who resigned as chair of the association’s faith group.

This comes after it did light it up for other terrorist attacks, such as the Bataclan attack in 2015.

The FA has not reached a decision on whether it will light the arch in the future, chief executive Mark Bullingham told the Leaders in Sport conference in London on Thursday.

He said the FA held internal meetings and heard from experts to reach its decision before the match, noting that Australia desired to remain neutral as it was due to play Palestine and Lebanon.

“We all felt then, and we all feel now, that football should stand for peace and humanity and that we should show compassion for all innocent victims of this terrible conflict,” Bullingham said.

“Our compassion and sympathy is clearly for families and children in particular, and that was a consistent view across football.”

He admitted that the move “caused hurt in the Jewish community” and called it “one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make”.

“The last thing we ever wanted to do in this situation was to add to the hurt,” he added. “We aren’t asking for everyone to agree with our decision, but to understand how we reached it.”

He questioned why world cup matches for rugby and cricket were not being scrutinised in a similar manner, and whether other national landmarks should be discussed. 

“We understand that the power of football means it will always be in the spotlight. And that’s just something we have to accept,” Bullingham said.