why will the Israel-France match be played in Budapest?

For the fifth time in a row, the Israeli football team will play a “home” match which will not take place on its land. Thursday evening (8:45 p.m.), it is at the Bozsik Arena in Budapest that they will face France as part of the 3rd day of the Nations League. Since the last match of the selection in Tel Aviv on September 12, 2023 and the escalation of the war between Israel and Hamas, marked among other things by the series of terrorist attacks of October 7, organize meetings of the national team within the country is considered too risky.

It is therefore Hungary which serves as the host land: twice at the Pancho Arena (Felcsut), once at the Ferenc-Szusza stadium (Budapest) and once at the Bozsik Arena (Budapest) which will be used again on Thursday for the Blues. For what ? Above all because Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister, has clearly grasped the soft power tool represented by football, a sport he loves. And because he maintains very good relations with Israel.

Orban, “true friend of Israel” according to Netanyahu

“We have a very good combination of personal connections and relationships and pure love for sport and football in the Hungarian government”said Yacov Hadas-Handelsman, Israeli ambassador to Hungary, last year. In 2018, the Prime Minister of the Jewish state, Benjamin Netanyahu, described Orban as “true friend of Israel”. A country that is not the only one to benefit from Hungarian hospitality on the football fields in recent years.

During the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, Hungary was one of the main countries to host matches which had to be relocated for health reasons. Its geographical location, in the center of Europe, as well as the hundreds of millions of euros invested in infrastructure in recent years, have made Hungary an ideal host country. Recently, Belarus, whose organization of matches at home has become risky since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, played “at home” in Hungary, just like Israel.

Hungary takes the opportunity to promote its anti-migrant policy

Finally, these matches represent a challenge in terms of the country’s image for Orban, but they also feed his policy. The far-right leader is suspected of maintaining these links with Israel in order to avoid accusations of anti-Semitism to which he has been the subject in the past. Several Western countries took exception to some of his comments regarding George Soros, a Jewish philanthropist of Hungarian origin and openly opposed to Orban’s policies.

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“We are fighting a new kind of enemy. Not open, but hidden. Not national but international, who does not believe in work but who speculates with money, who does not have his own homeland but who believes that he owns the whole world”declared Viktor Orban. More recently, its political director, Balazs Orban (no family relation to the Prime Minister), affirmed that Hungary could host these football matches unlike Western countries due to «l’immigration clandestine» that they would not be able to control.

Comments aimed at Belgium, which was to face Israel at home but which preferred to relocate the match… to Hungary, on September 6. France, for its part, intends to play its second League of Nations match against Israel, scheduled for November 14, in France. Barring any developments, the meeting will take place at the Stade de France. However, it is not excluded that it will be held behind closed doors, as will be the case this Thursday in Budapest for security reasons.