Israeli national soccer team

This article is about the Israeli men's national soccer team , for the women's national team, see Israeli national women's soccer team .

State of Israel
Medinat Yisra'el

Association	Israel Football Association
confederacy	UEFA
Technical sponsor	puma
Head coach	Willi Ruttensteiner (Interim)
captain	Eran Zahavi
Record scorer	Mordechai Spiegler (24 goals)
Record player	Yossi Benayoun (102)
Home stadium	Teddy Stadium , Jerusalem Sammy Ofer Stadium , Haifa
FIFA code	ISR
FIFA rank	93. (1260 points) (as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey Second jersey
Balance sheet
424 games 154 wins 97 draws 173 defeats
statistics
First international USA 3-1 Israel ( New York City , USA ; September 26, 1948 )
Biggest win Israel 9-0 Chinese Taipei ( Wellington , New Zealand ; March 23, 1988 )
Biggest defeat Germany 7: 1 Israel ( Kaiserslautern , Germany ; February 13, 2002 )
Successes in tournaments
World Championship
Participation in the finals	1 ( first : 1970 )
Best results	Preliminary round 1970
Asian Championship
Participation in the finals	4 ( first : 1956 )
Best results	Asian champion 1964
Olympic games Quarter finals 1968 Quarter finals 1976
(As of November 20, 2018)

The Israeli national football team is the team of the Israel Football Association (IFA).

history

In the Asian Football Confederation until 1974

The beginnings of football in Israel and Palestine in the Gymnasia Herzliya in Jaffa go back to 1912. After the First World War , Jewish, Arab and British teams played football in Palestine. The Palestinian Football Association was founded in mid-August 1928 and was incorporated into FIFA on June 6, 1929 . In 1934 and 1938 the national team took part in qualifying for the World Cup under the name Palestine / Eretz Israel . The team's first goal (at 1: 7 against Egypt ) was scored by Avraham Nudelmann .

With the founding of Israel in 1948, the Israel Football Association ( IFA) was founded and incorporated into FIFA . The first game after the founding of the state was on September 26, 1948 against the USA team , it was lost 1: 3.

In 1956, Israel joined the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The later Olympic champion USSR failed in qualifying for the Olympic Games in Melbourne.

In qualifying for the 1958 World Cup , Turkey , Indonesia and Sudan did not face Israel in succession . Since FIFA did not want to allow a country without a qualifier, Wales was drawn from all runners-up in the other groups as opponents. Israel lost 2-0 to Wales twice.

In qualifying for the 1960 Olympic Games, Israel took second place in a group with Yugoslavia and Greece behind the tied Yugoslavs who qualified because of the better goal difference and became Olympic champions in Rome.

In 1962, Israel failed in qualifying with 2: 4 and 0: 6 to Italy , after Cyprus and Ethiopia had been defeated and Romania did not take part.

In 1964, Israel failed in the first qualifying round for the Olympic Games against South Vietnam .

Israel qualified for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico and reached the quarterfinals.

In 1970 you could prevail against Australia and reach a World Cup finals for the first and only time (see below)

Israel failed in 1972 in the semi-finals of the Asian qualification for the Olympic Games in Munich on penalties against Thailand .

Between 1974 and 1991

Because of the boycott of the Arab states, Israel was excluded from the Asian association in 1974. However, admission to UEFA was rejected by the states of the Eastern Bloc . For example, Israel was sorted into various other qualifying groups at FIFA qualifying tournaments.

Again Israel qualified for the Olympic Games in 1976. In Montreal the quarter-finals was achieved in the against the Brazilian Olympic team was lost.

In the subsequent Olympic qualification in 1980, Israel failed to Spain.

In qualifying for the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles , the West German Olympic team failed .

In 1988 Israel took part in the oceanic qualifying group in the qualification for the Olympic Games in Seoul and failed to Australia.

In the 1990 World Cup qualification , Israel failed as a representative of the Oceanic Confederation in the intercontinental playoff against the South American representative Colombia.

In UEFA from 1991

After the end of communism in Eastern Europe , Israel was admitted to UEFA in 1991, has been contesting the World Cup qualifications in the European groups since qualifying for the 1994 World Cup and taking part in the European Championship qualification, but has not yet qualified for any tournament.

The European Championship qualifier against Andorra was played in front of empty ranks in the Goffert Stadium in Nijmegen on September 6, 2006 because of the FIFA sanctions due to the Lebanon War , as, in the opinion of UEFA , the security of the teams and spectators could not be guaranteed due to the tense political situation. For the following matches, UEFA lifted the home game ban against Israel on September 15, 2006 with immediate effect.

Participation of Israel in soccer world championships

year	Host country	Participation until	Last opponent	Result	Trainer	Comments and special features
1930	Uruguay	not existent				The state of Israel does not yet exist. The British Protectorate of Palestine , which included parts of what is now Israel, does not participate.
1934	Italy	not existent				Palestine fails to qualify against Egypt
1938	France	not existent				Palestine fails to qualify to Greece , which, however, also failed to qualify
1950	Brazil	not qualified				Yugoslavia failed in the first qualifying round
1954	Switzerland	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Yugoslavia
1958	Sweden	not qualified				In the qualification of Wales failed, which were determined as a replacement opponent, as other countries did not want to compete against Israel (Wales' only World Cup appearance)
1962	Chile	not qualified				In the qualification in the play-off round "Europe / Middle East" failed to Italy
1966	England	not qualified				In the qualification of Bulgaria failed
1970	Mexico	Preliminary round	Uruguay , Sweden , Italy	12.	Emanuel Schaffer	Israel is eliminated as the bottom of the group, but reaches two draws against the two European teams.
1974	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification to South Korea failed, the could but also not qualify
1978	Argentina	not qualified				In the qualification again failed to South Korea , which could also not qualify again
1982	Spain	not qualified				In the qualification of Scotland and Northern Ireland failed
1986	Mexico	not qualified				Failed in the qualification to Australia , which could not qualify either
1990	Italy	not qualified				In the qualification in the intercontinental playoff against Colombia failed
1994	United States	not qualified				In the qualification of Sweden and Bulgaria failed, which then collided at the World Cup in the game for third place.
1998	France	not qualified				In the qualification of Bulgaria and Russia failed, which failed in the play-offs also
2002	South Korea / Japan	not qualified				In the qualification of Spain and Austria failed, which failed in the play-offs also
2006	Germany	not qualified				In the qualification of France and Switzerland failed.
2010	South Africa	not qualified				In qualifying at the Switzerland and Greece failed.
2014	Brazil	not qualified				In the qualification of Russia and Portugal failed.
2018	Russia	not qualified				After a defeat on the third last day of qualification in Italy there was no more chance of a successful qualification.
2022	Qatar

Participation of Israel in the European football championships

• 1960 to 1992 - was not a UEFA member
• 1996 to 2016 - not qualified

Participation of Israel in the Asian football championships

• 1956 to 1960 - runner-up
• 1964 - Asian champion
• 1968 - third
• 1972 - withdrawn

Record player

rank	Surname	Calls	Gates	position	Period	Record international player
01.	Yossi Benayoun	ref102	24	midfield	1998–	since August 14, 2013 (94 games)
02.	Ben Haim Valley	096	00	Defense	2002–
03.	Arik Benado	094	00	Defense	1995-2007	September 3, 2005 to May 28, 2014 (86 to 94 games)
04th	Alon Harazi	089	01	Defense	1992-2006	September 3, 2005 to February 7, 2007 (86 to 89 games, together with Arik Benado)
05.	Amir Schelach	085	00	Defense	1992-2001	August 15, 2001 to September 3, 2005 (84 to 85 games)
06th	Nir Klinger	ref83	02	midfield	1987-1997	March 31, 1997 to August 15, 2001 (83 games)
07th	Mordechai Spiegler	0ref82	ref32	Midfield / attack	1964-1977	March 22, 1972 to March 31, 1997 (62 to 82 games)
08th.	Avi Nimni	080	17th	Midfield / attack	1992-2005
09.	Dudu Aouate	078	00	goal	1999-2013
	Tal Banin	078	12	midfield	1990-2003
	Eyal Berkovic	078	09	midfield	1992-2004
	Itzhak Shum	078	10	midfield	1969-1988
13.	Walid Badir	074	12	midfield	1997-2007

Record goal scorers

Mordechai Spiegler has been the record scorer since October 15, 1968 when he beat Nahum Stelmach's record in a 3-1 win against El Salvador at the Olympic Games with his 23rd goal .

rank	Surname	Gates	Calls	Quota	Period
01.	Mordechai Spiegler	ref32	0ref82	0.39	1964-1977
02.	Yossi Benayoun	24	ref102	0.24	1998–
	Yehoshua fig boim	ref24	0ref51	0.47	1966-1977
	Ronen Harazi	23	053	0.44	1992-1999
05.	Nahum Stelmach	ref22nd	0ref61	0.36	1956-1968
06th	Gidi Damti	ref20th	0ref69	0.29	1971-1981
	Yehoshua Glazer	ref18th	0ref35	0.51	1949-1961
08th.	Giora mirror	ref18th	0ref44	0.41	1965-1980
09.	Alon Mizrahi	17th	037	0.46	1992-2001
	Avi Nimni	17th	080	0.21	1992-2005
	Eli Ohana	17th	0ref51	0.33	1984-1997

Sources: rsssf.com, eu-football.info, Israel Football Association

Known players

• Gal Alberman
• Gai Assulin
• Eyal Berkovic
• Maor Buzaglo
• Almog Cohen
• Avi Cohen
• Roberto Colautti
• Nir Davidovich
• Ben Haim Valley
• Avi Ran
• Haim Revivo
• Ronny Rosenthal
• Toto Tamuz
• Rifaat Turk
• Ben Sahar
• Abbas Suan
• Yochanan Vollach
• Yossi Benayoun

successes

Israel became the Asian champions in their own country in 1964 .

In 1968 the team qualified for the first time to participate in the Olympic football tournament , where they were eliminated in the quarterfinals against Bulgaria (by tossing a coin).

1970 succeeded the first and so far only qualification for the soccer World Cup finals in Mexico , where the team was eliminated after the preliminary round after two draws ( Sweden and Italy ) and one defeat ( Uruguay ).

In 1976 Israel took part in the Olympic tournament for the second time, but lost again in the quarter-finals, this time against Brazil .

In 1990 the team won the qualifying group Oceania in qualifying for the World Cup , but then lost to the winner of South America group 2, Colombia .

The team was unbeaten at home games for over 6 years. After the defeat in the qualification phase for the EM 2000 in 1999 against Denmark, they only lost again in a friendly match in 2006 against the Danes.

Trainer of Israel

Trainer	Coach years	Played	Won	draw	Lost	Goal difference	Games won (in%)
Egon Pollak	1948	1	0	0	1	−2	00.00%
Lajos Hess	1949	3	1	0	2	−7	33.33%
Vladislav Scali	1950	2	1	0	1	+3	50.00%
Jerry Beit HaLevi	1953-1954	5	0	0	5	−6	00.00%
Jack Gibbons	1956	5	2	0	3	−5	40.00%
Jerry Beit HaLevi	1957	1	0	0	1	−1	00.00%
Moshe Varon	1958	5	2	0	3	−1	40.00%
Gyula Mandi	1959-1963	31	12	7th	12	−14	50.00%
George Ainsley	1963-1964	3	2	0	1	+2	66.66%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964	1	0	0	1	−4	00.00%
Gyula Mandi	1964	3	3	0	0	+4	100.00%
Yosef Mirmovich	1964-1965	3	1	0	2	0	33.33%
Milovan Ciric	1965-1968	25th	8th	2	15th	−2	36.00%
Emanuel Schaffer	1968-1970	24	8th	8th	8th	+10	50.00%
Edmond Schmilovich	1970-1973	19th	10	4th	5	+14	63.20%
David Schweitzer	1973-1977	36	17th	11	8th	+33	62.50%
Emanuel Schaffer	1978-1979	13	5	4th	4th	+2	53.80%
Jack Mansell	1980-1981	10	2	3	5	−4	35.00%
Yosef Mirmovich	1983-1986	27	8th	9	10	+3	46.30%
Miljenko Mihic	1986-1988	20th	4th	5	11	−8	32.50%
Itzhak Schneor Ya'akov Grundman	1988-1992	18th	5	5	8th	−9	32.50%
Shlomo Sharf	1992-2000	82	31	18th	33	+13	48.20%
Richard Møller Nielsen	2000-2002	20th	7th	4th	9	−4	45.00%
Avram Grant	2002-2006	33	14th	13	6th	+18	42.40%
Dror Kashtan	2006-2010	19th	10	4th	5	+8	52.60%
Eli Ohana (Interim)	2010	1	1	0	0	+2	100.00%
Luis Fernández	2010-2011	2	0	0	2	−6	00.00%
Eli Guttman	2012-2015	31	9	7th	15th	± 0	29.03%
Alon Hazan (Interim)	2016	1	0	0	1	−2	00.00%
Elisha Levy	2016-2018	12	4th	1	7th	−7	33.33%
Andreas Herzog	2018-2020	1	1	0	0	+2	100.00%
Willi Ruttensteiner (Interim)	2020–	1	0	0	1	−2	00.00%

National stadium

The Ramat Gan Stadium , built in 1951 with 41,583 seats, was for a long time the national stadium of the Israeli national soccer team. It is now out of date. In 2014, the Sammy Ofer Stadium in Haifa with 30,820 seats was opened, it is the first Israeli stadium in the UEFA category 4.The games of the national team in the stadium in Haifa and the recently renovated and expanded Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem (32,000 Places).

International matches against German-speaking national soccer teams

→ Main article : List of the international matches of the Israeli national football team

International matches against the German national soccer team

	date	place	Home team	result	Visiting team
01.	March 25, 1987	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	0: 2	Germany
02.	February 26, 1997	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	0: 1	Germany
03.	February 13, 2002	Kaiserslautern	Germany	7: 1	Israel
04th	May 31, 2012	Leipzig	Germany	2-0	Israel

International matches against the Liechtenstein national football team

	date	place	Home team	result	Visiting team
01.	September 3, 2000	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	2-0	Liechtenstein
02.	June 2, 2001	Vaduz	Liechtenstein	0: 3	Israel
03.	October 9, 2016	Jerusalem	Israel	2: 1	Liechtenstein
04th	October 6, 2017	Vaduz	Liechtenstein	0: 1	Israel

International matches against the Luxembourg national football team

	date	place	Home team	result	Visiting team
01.	19th December 1984	Petach Tikva	Israel	2-0	Luxembourg
02.	February 12, 1995	Ashdod	Israel	4: 2	Luxembourg
03.	December 15, 1996	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	1-0	Luxembourg
04th	March 31, 1997	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	0: 3	Israel
05.	September 5, 2002	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	0: 5	Israel
06th	October 11, 2008	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1: 3	Israel
07th	September 9, 2009	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	7-0	Luxembourg
08th.	October 12, 2012	Luxembourg	Luxembourg	0: 6	Israel
09.	October 16, 2012	Ramat Gan	Israel	3-0	Luxembourg

International matches against the Austrian national soccer team

	date	place	Home team	result	Visiting team
01.	April 23, 1969	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	1: 1	Austria
02.	15th December 1976	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	1: 3	Austria
03.	January 30, 1979	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	0: 1	Austria
04th	October 28, 1992	Vienna	Austria	5: 2	Israel
05.	October 27, 1993	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	1: 1	Austria
06th	5th September 1998	Vienna	Austria	1: 1	Israel
07th	June 6, 1999	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	5-0	Austria
08th.	March 28, 2001	Vienna	Austria	2: 1	Israel
09.	October 27, 2001	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	1: 1	Austria
10.	March 24, 2019	Haifa	Israel	4: 2	Austria
11.	October 10, 2019	Vienna	Austria	3: 1	Israel

International matches against the Swiss national football team

	date	place	Home team	result	Visiting team
01.	February 14, 1968	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	2: 1	Switzerland
02.	May 19, 1987	Aarau	Switzerland	1-0	Israel
03.	December 16, 1987	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	0: 2	Switzerland
04th	October 9, 2004	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	2: 2	Switzerland
05.	September 3, 2005	Basel	Switzerland	1: 1	Israel
06th	September 6, 2008	Tel Aviv-Jaffa	Israel	2: 2	Switzerland
07th	October 14, 2009	Basel	Switzerland	0-0	Israel

See also

• List of the international matches of the Israeli national football team
• Israel national football team (U-21 men)
• Israel National Football Team (U-19 Juniors)
• Israel National Football Team (U-17 Juniors)

Web links

Commons : Israel National Soccer Team  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official IFA website
• Israel National Football Team (Hebrew)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Israeli federation also takes into account goals scored in Olympic qualifying games and other games not recognized by FIFA and thus comes to 33 goals. Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link became automatic used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 . 
3. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com/tablesi/isra-intres50.html
4. ↑ http://www.rsssf.com/tablesi/isra-intres70.html
5. ↑ fussballportal.de ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) 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. - “ Israel must play in front of a ghost backdrop ”, September 10, 2006  
6. ↑ de.uefa.com - “ UEFA lifts Israel's ban ”, September 15, 2006
7. ↑ The placements from 5th place onwards were determined by FIFA without any placement games. See: All-time FIFA World Cup Ranking 1930-2010 (PDF; 200 kB)
8. ↑ ^{a b} Including a game on March 3, 2010 against Romania, which is not counted by FIFA.
9. ↑ Including 6 qualifying games for the 1988 Olympic Games and one game against the USSR, which FIFA does not count
10. ↑ ^{a b} Of which 7 qualification games for the Olympic Games in 1964, 1968 and 1972 and 4 games for the Olympic Games in 1968 as well as 14 other games that are also not counted by FIFA
11. ↑ ^{a b} Including 4 goals in qualifying games for the Olympic Games in 1964 and 1972 and 1 goal in the Olympic Games in 1968 as well as 3 further goals that are not counted by FIFA
12. ↑ Including 4 goals at the Olympic Games in 1968 and 5 additional goals that are not counted by FIFA
13. ↑ Including 4 games at the 1968 Olympic Games and 11 other games that FIFA does not count
14. ^ Including 3 goals in qualifying games for the Olympic Games in 1956 and 1960
15. ↑ Including 8 qualifying games for the Olympic Games in 1956, 1960 and 1964 as well as 8 other games that are not counted by FIFA
16. ^ Including 7 goals in qualifying games for the Olympic Games in 1976 and 1980.
17. ↑ 12 of these qualifying games for the 1972, 1976 and 1980 Olympic Games, 4 games for the 1976 Olympic Games and 6 other games that are not counted by FIFA.
18. ↑ Including 2 goals in qualifying games for the 1960 Olympic Games and 2 further goals in games not counted by FIFA.
19. ↑ Including 6 qualifying games for the Olympic Games in 1956 and 1960 and 2 other games that are not counted by FIFA.
20. ↑ Including 2 goals in qualifying games for the 1968 Olympic Games and 2 goals in the 1968 Olympic Games as well as 4 further goals that are not counted by FIFA
21. ↑ Including 5 qualifying games for the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games and 4 games for the 1968 Olympic Games as well as 6 other games that are not counted by FIFA
22. ↑ Including 1 game, which is not counted by FIFA either.
23. ↑ Jean-Michel Cazal, Yaniv Bleicher: Israel National Team - Appearances and Goalscoring ( English ) rsssf.com. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
24. ↑ PLAYERS for Israel ( English ) eu-football.info. Retrieved May 16, 2019.
25. ↑ National Team Appearances list ( English ) Israel Football Association. Archived from the original on August 15, 2017. Retrieved May 16, 2019.