Messi asked to sit out Israel match

Palestinian football boss Jibril Rajoub called Sunday on Barcelona star Lionel Messi not to play in an Argentina-Israel game in Jerusalem and urged fans to burn their shirts if he does.

Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Association, has long demanded sanctions against Israel, which has six league teams based in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

At a news conference, he told journalists he had written to Argentina's government asking that Messi not take part in the June 9 friendly.

"This match has become a political tool," Rajoub said in Arabic.

“Messi is a symbol of peace and love," Rajoub said. "We ask him not to participate in laundering the crimes of the occupation."

Messi, he added, "has tens of millions of fans in the Arab and Muslim countries... we ask everyone to burn their shirts which bear his name and posters [with his image]."