FIFA’s disciplinary committee has sanctioned the head of the Palestinian Football Association after determining that he had breached article 53 (inciting hatred and violence) of the international football organisation’s disciplinary code.

Djibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian FA, has been given a 12-month match ban and handed a fine of 20,000 Swiss Francs, “following media statements he gave calling on football fans to target the Argentinian Football Association and burn jerseys and pictures of Lionel Messi.”

Argentina had been due to play a friendly match against Israel in Jerusalem on June 9, just prior to the World Cup. The match was subsequently cancelled.

FIFA confirmed that the 12 month ban “becomes effective today” and that it “entails a ban on taking part in any future match or competition taking place during the given period.

“Consequently, Mr Rajoub will not be able to attend football matches or competitions in any official capacity, which includes, among others, participating in media activities at stadiums or in their vicinity on match days.”

A key ally of former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Mr Rajoub is currently head of the Central Committee of Fatah, the Palestinian political party which controls the Palestinian National Authority in the West Bank.

He is also head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee. In 2012, he thanked the then-chief of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, for his decision to forgo a moment of silence at the London Olympics to commemorate the Israeli athletes killed by Palestinian terrorists at the Munich 1972 olympics. He wrote that to allow the commemoration would have been “racism”.