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Court throws out appeal by Palestinian FA chief who called for Messi shirt burning

Jibril Rajoub had been given a £16,200 fine and a one-year ban from football by Fifa

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A court has upheld Fifa’s decision to fine the head of the Palestinian Football Association after he said fans should burn Lionel Messi shirts over a proposed match with Israel.

Jibril Rajoub was fined 20,000 Swiss francs (£16,200) and suspended from attending football matches for a year after he made the call targeting the star Argentina and Barcelona striker last summer.

A panel for Fifa, world football’s governing body, had found he had breached its code for inciting hatred and violence.

The Palestinian FA chief subsequently took his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking to have the decision annulled.

But a CAS panel ruled on Thursday that Mr Rajoub had “failed to establish that any procedural violations were committed... that could justify the annulment of such decisions”.

Argentina eventually pulled out of the match, which was proposed to take place in Jerusalem, citing the threats against Messi.

It came after demonstrators with blood-drenched Argentina football shirts spent a week protesting outside the team’s camp in Barcelona.

The game had been planned as Argentina’s final rehearsal before the 2018 Fifa World Cup.

“The stuff that happens in those places where they kill so many people, as a human being you can’t accept that in any way,” Hugo Moyano, vice president of the Argentine FA, at the time. “The players’ families were suffering due to the threats.”

The Palestinian FA had said it would not have objected to the match if it was held in Haifa, the venue that was originally proposed.

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