After Italian teams Juventus and Atlético Madrid refused to travel to Israel for a friendly match scheduled for Sunday, August 7 in Tel Aviv on Saturday, a new European team has joined the list of refusals.
The Swiss team from Lugano has also canceled a trip to Israel, where it is due to face Israel’s Hapoel Beer Sheva next Thursday in the European Conference League qualifiers.
The Lugano club stated on its website that it is currently consulting with the European Football Association about a match against an Israeli team, indicating that it cannot travel to Israel in light of the tensions in the region.
The Swiss club added: “We advise our fans not to buy flights to Israel because it is impossible to guarantee that the match will actually take place in Beersheba.”
It comes one day after the decision to cancel the match between Juventus and Atlético Madrid at Tel Aviv’s Bloomfield Stadium due to the two clubs’ refusal to travel to Israel.
In turn, Juventus released an official statement on their official website saying that their match against Atlético Madrid in Tel Aviv has been cancelled.
“Due to recent events, the friendly match between Atlético Madrid and Juventus, which was supposed to take place in Israel, has been cancelled,” the statement said.
The statement concludes: “Ticket holders will automatically be compensated using the same payment instruments used to make the purchase within 14 days.”
Source: “Agency”