Palestinian national soccer team

Palestinian Authority
Palestinian Territories

Association

Palestinian Football Federation

confederacy

AFC

Technical sponsor

Jako

Head coach

Noureddine Ould Ali (since 2018)

Record scorer

Fahed Attal (16)

Record player

Abdelatif Bahdari (74)

Home stadium

Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium

FIFA code

PLE

FIFA rank

103rd (1204 points)
(as of July 16, 2020)

First jersey

Second jersey

statistics

First international match Egypt 8: 1 Palestine ( Egypt ; July 26, 1953 )

Biggest victory Palestine 11-0 Guam ( Dhaka , Bangladesh ; April 1, 2006 )

Biggest defeat Egypt 8: 1 Palestine (Egypt; July 26, 1953)

Successes in tournaments

Asian Championship

Participation in the finals

2 ( first : 2015 )

Best results

Preliminary round 2015, 2019

(As of January 25, 2020)

The Palestinian national football team is the football selection of the Palestinian autonomous territories and represents the Palestinian football association on an international level. The team has not yet managed to qualify for a soccer World Cup .

history

The beginnings of the football game in Palestine go back to 1912. After the First World War , Jewish and British teams played soccer in Palestine. Arabs, especially those of the Islamic faith, refrained from participating in the early founding of football in Palestine because of their resistance to “Western cultural institutions”. In mid-August 1928, the first Palestinian Football Association ( Football Association of Palestine ) was founded, which was incorporated into FIFA on June 6, 1929 . In 1934 and 1938 the Palestinian national team took part in qualifying for the World Cup under the name Palestine / Eretz Israel . The trainers of the Jewish selection were Egon Pollak and Shimon Ratner. With the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, it was incorporated into the Israel Football Association, IFA, which became a member of FIFA.

The Palestinian Football Association ( Palestinian Football Association ) was founded in 1962, and in the 1998 FIFA added. Since then, the Arab selection has taken part in the qualifying tournaments for the soccer world championships in 2002 , 2006 , 2010 and 2014 without making it past the second of the up to five qualifying rounds of the AFC . For the first time in 2015 she qualified for the Asian Football Championship . The national team was able to increase continuously in the FIFA ranking system from the time they were accepted and reached 126th place in 2006. In the following two years, however, they fell behind and between 2008 and 2012 moved between 160 and 180th place. In 2014, Palestine won the AFC Challenge Cup and was At the beginning of 2018 in 75th place. Israel was overtaken for the first time in 2017.

The qualifying game for the Asian Cup between Singapore and Palestine had been canceled hours before the match kicked off on November 15, 2006. As the Asian Football Association said, the arrival of the Palestinian team was not possible due to ongoing political tensions in Gaza. On October 28, 2007, the qualifying game for the 2010 World Cup, in which the Palestinian selection should meet Singapore again, did not take place for the same reason. The first official home game as a FIFA member took place on October 26, 2008 at the Faisal-Al-Husseini-International stadium in al-Ram . FIFA President Blatter came to the friendly against neighboring Jordan and watched the game from the stands. In 2008, the Football Association of Palestine received the FIFA Development Award , a prize that recognizes special efforts in connection with the development of the sport of football.

Some of the team, such as Roberto Kettlun , are recruited from Chile , where the largest Palestinian community outside the Palestinian Autonomous Territories is based.

Dora International Stadium

In January 2009, national player Ayman Alkurd was killed in an attack by Israeli forces during the military operation Cast Lead .

Again and again, the team had problems at home games because opposing Arab teams were not allowed to enter the country by Israel.

In 2014, two players were shot and arrested in Jordan after three months of treatment. In May 2014, a player returning from the Asia Cup in Dubai was arrested for no reason. These events led the President of the Djibril ar-Rajub association to demand sanctions from FIFA against Israel.

In 2017, the association demanded sanctions from FIFA against Israel for teams from Israeli settlements to participate in the championships. However, this refused to remain neutral.