Israel Football Association

Israel Football Association ההתאחדות לכדורגל בישראל
founding	1928
FIFA accession	1929
UEFA accession	1991/94
AFC accession	1956-1974
president	Ofer Eini
Secretary General	Ori Shilo
National teams	Women , men
Homepage	eng.football.org.il

former logo

The Israel Football Association ( IFA ) ( Hebrew : ההתאחדות לכדורגל בישראל ha-Hitachdut le-Kaduregel be-Jisrael) is the football association of Israel . In addition to the national team, he also organizes the national league competitions from the state championship to the lowest classes. Its seat is in Ramat Gan .

The IFA was founded in 1928 as the Football Association of Palestine (under a British mandate), admitted to FIFA in 1929 and joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in 1956 as the Israel Football Association . But many countries refused to stand up against Israel. During the qualification for the 1958 World Cup, Turkey , Indonesia and Sudan canceled one after the other , so that the Welsh people who had been eliminated in the European qualification were given one last chance against Israel and were able to use it, which meant that all four British teams took part in the World Cup once . In 1956 and 1960, Israel finished second in the Asian Football Championship . In 1964, Israel hosted and won the Asian Championship and at the Asian Football Championship in Iran in 1968, 3rd place was once again taken.

In 1967 Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Tel Aviv won the Cup of Asian Masters in 1968 and 1971 . In 1970 Israel was able to qualify for the World Cup for the only time so far . There they were only barely defeated by Uruguay and after a draw with Sweden they wrested a 0-0 from eventual vice world champions Italy. In 1974 Israel was excluded from the AFC, but admission to UEFA was refused by the states of the Eastern Bloc . The Israeli national team had to take part in the World Cup and Olympic qualifications of the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) in the following years and thus mostly compete against the countries of Australia and Oceania or represent the Oceanic Association in intercontinental play-offs for the World Cup qualification, but could do not participate in the local continental championships.

In 1991 IFA was admitted to UEFA and has been qualifying for the World Cup in the European groups since qualifying for the 1994 World Cup and has been participating in the European Championship since 1994 , but has not qualified for any tournament since then. In the 1992/93 season, Israeli clubs took part in the UEFA Champions League and the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first time. In 2002, Maccabi Haifa was the first Israeli champions to qualify for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League . However, the home games had to be played in the GSP Stadium in Nicosia , Cyprus , because UEFA prohibited international football games in Israel. There you met u. a. on Bayer 04 Leverkusen . Nevertheless, Haifa qualified third in the group for the UEFA Cup , but was eliminated there immediately by AEK Athens . After that, Maccabi Tel Aviv was able to reach the group stage in 2004 and Maccabi Haifa again in 2009 , but were each eliminated as the last in their group. 2010 reached Hapoel Tel Aviv in the group stage, scoring u. a. on FC Schalke 04 . Israel currently ranks 17th in the UEFA five-year ranking.

UEFA five-year ranking

Placement in the UEFA five-year ranking ( previous year's ranking in brackets ). The abbreviations CL and EL after the country coefficients indicate the number of representatives in the 2019/20 season of the Champions League and the Europa League .

• 25. ( 21 ) Poland ( league , cup )) - coefficient: 19.250 - CL: 1, EL: 3 
• 26. ( 23 ) Azerbaijan ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 19,000 - CL: 1, EL: 3 
• 27. ( 18 ) Israel ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 18,625 - CL: 1, EL: 3 
• 28. ( 24 ) Bulgaria ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 17,500 - CL: 1, EL: 3 
• 29. ( 20 ) Romania ( league , cup ) - coefficient: 15,950 - CL: 1, EL: 3 

Status: end of the European Cup season 2018/19

Web links

• Israel Football Association website (official English version)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Israel Football Association. (No longer available online.) In: eng.football.org.il. Archived from the original on December 30, 2015 ; accessed on December 30, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ UEFA rankings for club competitions. In: UEFA. Retrieved July 14, 2019 .