Israel’s Foreign Ministry is worried that next month’s meeting of the International Federation of Association Football (Fifa) will result in a decision to expel six Israeli clubs based in West Bank settlements, an official has said.

A cable leaked by an anonymous official to Haaretz and AFP shows that Israeli diplomats in dozens of embassies around the world have been ordered to persuade host countries to take the issue off the agenda.

“Our growing assessment is that the Fifa Congress is liable to make a decision on suspending six Israeli teams that play over the Green Line, or even on suspending Israel from Fifa,” the document read.

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“We urge you to contact your countries’ representatives on the Fifa Council as soon as possible to obtain their support for Israel’s position, which rejects mixing politics with sport and calls for reaching an agreed solution between the parties... and to thwart an anti-Israel decision if it is brought before the council.”

Football is Israel’s most popular sport. Many of its teams have qualified for the UEFA Champions League.

The six clubs which could be affected are all low-level league teams in Ma’aleh Adumim, Ariel, Kiryat Arba, Givat Ze’ev, Oranit and the Jordan Valley.

Israeli building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the 1967 Green Line is viewed as illegal under international law.

Palestinians have been calling since 2015 for the world governing football body to exclude Israel from competitions until clubs playing in the occupied territories are barred.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada The proclamation of the state of Israel is read by David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948 © EPA Israel: From independence to intifada Sixty years on, an illuminated flag is shown in Tel Aviv this week © PA Israel: From independence to intifada Young Jews celebrate the proclamation of the state of Israel in 1948 © AFP/Getty Images Israel: From independence to intifada Palestinian children throw stones at a retreating Israeli tank during an incursion into the West Bank city of Jenin in August 2003 following a suicide bombing in Jerusalem © AP Israel: From independence to intifada How Israel's borders have changed - click image to enlarge © Independent Graphics Israel: From independence to intifada From 1948-50, the world's mostcelebrated war photographer Robert Capa captured extraordinary imagesof Israel's pioneering settlers. Here, Turkish immigrants arrive in Haifa © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada The Negba kibbutz, where the walls have been damaged by shells fired during the Israeli-Arab war © Robert Capa/Getty Images Robert Capa/Magnum

According to Haaretz, Fifa’s bylaws “bar any country from setting up teams in another country’s territory, or letting such teams play in its own leagues without the other country’s consent” - a clause which Palestinian Football Association President Jibril Rajoub reiterated earlier this month could be used to bar Israel from Fifa altogether.

Fifa’s Council and Congress are set to meet in the Bahraini capital of Manama between 9 - 11 May.

Last month the football body established a committee to deal with the issue of settlement clubs, headed by South African sports official Tokyo Sexwale.

A final report from Mr Sexwale’s team - widely expected to decisively influence the Fifa Congress’s decision - is due next next week.

Reports say Israeli Football Association chair Ofer Eini has attempted to soften the report’s language and remove any recommendations that Fifa vote on the issue, while Mr Rajoub has expressed disappointment the paper does not criticise Israel more harshly.

Since the 1970s, successive Israeli governments have encouraged large numbers of Jews to move onto what is viewed internationally as occupied land.

The total settler population in the West Bank is now thought to be 550,000 strong.