International sports boycotts of Israel are a question of if rather than when, with mounting pressure and ever more targeted boycotts and sanctions against Israel and widespread public anger at the Jewish state’s conduct of the Gaza war.

Next week’s United Nations General Assembly proceedings in New York, where Gaza is certain to take centre stage, are likely to make it increasingly difficult for international and national sports associations to remain on the sidelines under the fictional assertion that sports and politics are separate, and that sports build bridges.