{"id":12754,"date":"2026-03-30T10:06:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T09:06:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=12754"},"modified":"2026-06-26T10:07:40","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T09:07:40","slug":"spain-is-not-boycotting-the-world-cup-because-of-israel-israel-is-not-playing-in-it-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/spain-is-not-boycotting-the-world-cup-because-of-israel-israel-is-not-playing-in-it-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain Is Not Boycotting the World Cup Because of Israel \u00a0\u2013 \u00a0Israel Is Not Playing in It Anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Original article<\/a> (in Montenegrin) was published on 30\/03\/2026; Author:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain\u2019s position on the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran, and its clear condemnation of the war, has been welcomed enthusiastically in much of the world and has become one of the leading topics in both the media and on social networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever an issue becomes a major topic of discussion, it also generates misinformation. One such claim concerns Spain\u2019s alleged decision to boycott both Eurovision and the FIFA World Cup, which is being held this year in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, if Israel participates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A post published by the page Politiko<\/a> stated: \u201cIn a move that has shocked international cultural and sporting circles, Spanish public broadcaster RTVE and government officials have reinforced their position on a complete boycott of major international events if Israel remains a participant. This decision, finalized at the end of 2025 and confirmed this month, makes Spain the first member of the \u2018Big Five\u2019 to officially announce its withdrawal from Eurovision 2026 in Vienna. The boycott has reportedly now expanded to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with Spanish government spokespersons stating they will \u2018evaluate\u2019 the national team\u2019s participation if Israel qualifies for the expanded 48-team tournament. This escalation comes after Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez\u2019s recent \u2018No a la Guerra\u2019 (\u2018No to War\u2019) speech, in which he argued that international platforms are being used to \u2018normalize\u2019 the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is true that Spain, along with Ireland, the Netherlands, and Slovenia, decided not to participate in Eurovision because of the European Broadcasting Union\u2019s (EBU) decision to allow Israel to compete despite the fact that more than 75,000 people had been killed in attacks on Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It is true that Spain, along with Ireland, the Netherlands and Slovenia, decided not to participate in Eurovision<\/a> because of the decision by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) to allow Israel to compete in the song contest despite the fact that more than 75,000 people have been killed in attacks on Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to its aggression against Ukraine, Russian athletes were not allowed to participate in the Paris Olympic Games<\/a>, Russian clubs were excluded from all European competitions, and Russia was also barred from participating in Eurovision<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the claim that Spain could boycott the FIFA World Cup if Israel qualified for the expanded 48-team tournament is false.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reason is simple \u2013 Israel has already lost any chance of qualifying for the World Cup. Following a 3\u20130 defeat to Italy<\/a>[MOU1]<\/a> , the Israeli national team mathematically lost all remaining chances of reaching the tournament. Israel finished third in its qualifying group, behind Norway and Italy. Italy advanced to the play-offs, where it will face Bosnia and Herzegovina for a place at the World Cup, while Israel was eliminated from the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was still a slim possibility that Israel could qualify through the Nations League<\/a>, but it failed to secure qualification through that route as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, a search reveals no official announcement suggesting that Spain might withdraw from the World Cup, where it is scheduled to face Cape Verde, Egypt and Uruguay in the group stage. A list of the teams that have already qualified, as well as those still in contention for a place at the tournament, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For all these reasons, the post is rated as disinformation. The \u201cDisinformation\u201d rating is assigned to media reports that contain a mixture of factual information and inaccurate or partially true content. In such cases, media outlets may not necessarily be aware that false information has been published alongside accurate information. This rating is also applied to reports containing false attributions or headlines that do not accurately reflect the content of the article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spain\u2019s position on the U.S. and Israeli attack on Iran, and its clear condemnation of the war, has been welcomed enthusiastically in much of the world and has become one of the leading topics in both the media and on social networks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[97,170,251,805],"class_list":["post-12754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-disinformation","tag-israel","tag-spain","tag-world-cup"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12754"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12758,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12754\/revisions\/12758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}