The Palestine Football Federation was founded in 1952. Its successor, the Palestine Football Association, was recognized by FIFA in 1998, after the creation of the
Palestinian Authority.
The team reached an all-time high position of 115 in the
FIFA ranking system in April 2006 after seven years of progression from 191st in August 1999. Following their recognition by FIFA, the team played no official fixtures in the Palestinian Territories due to security concerns until a match on October 26, 2008 against
Jordan in the newly renovated
Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium in Al-Ram north of
Jerusalem, which finished in a 1–1 draw.
[3] In recognition of their efforts the
Palestinian Football Federation was awarded FIFA's inaugural Development Award.
[4]
Beginnings
The game was originally introduced during the time of the
British Mandate. Palestine has one of the oldest histories of organized football in the Middle East with evidence of the game being played at an organized level amongst Palestinians youths since at least the early 1920s.
[5]Some notable clubs during the early years of Palestinian football were Shabab Al Arab of Haifa, the Orthodox Club of Jerusalem, and Islami Yaffa. During these years, Palestinian stars, such as
Jabra Al-Zarqa,
George Mardeni, and
Majed Assad represented an excellence that was second to none. In fact, Jabra Al-Zarqa received an offer to play for Arsenal FC while playing in the British Army's Haifa League in 1945.
[5]
The Palestine/Eretz Israel FA was formed in 1928 and joined FIFA in 1929 but at the time the association was made up of Arab clubs, Jewish clubs and clubs representing British policemen and soldiers serving in the region during the British Mandate rule that spanned the period between World War One and the independence of the state of Israel in 1948. After being phased out by the Palestine/Eretz Israel FA, Arab teams reorganized under the banner of the Arab Palestine Sports Federation which was organized in 1931 and reorganized in 1944.
[6]The qualification matches for the 1934 and 1938 World Cups were contested by a Palestine/Eretz Israel team made up exclusively of Jewish and British players.
[7]
Renaissance
Palestine applied to, and was admitted into, FIFA in 1998. They played their first
friendly matches against Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria in July 1998. The following year, the team, led by Israeli-Arab coach
Azmi Nasser took part in the
1999 Pan Arab Games, in which they won the bronze medal after beating
Syria,
Qatar, and the
UAE, while only losing to hosts
Jordan.
The Chilean connection
In 2002, the
PFA hired
Nicola Shahwan as manager. Shahwan, who was born in
Beit Jala, grew up in Chile and had many connections among Santiago's Palestinian community, whence he brought
Roberto Bishara,
Roberto Kettlun,
Edgardo Abdala,
Francisco Atura and the
Argentine-born
Pablo Abdala into the squad. These players made their debuts in the
2002 Arab Nations Cup. The team exited in the group stage but managed draws against group winners
Jordan, hosts
Kuwait, and
Sudan, with their only loss coming against eventual semi-finalists
Morocco.
In 2004, two more Arab Latin Americans joined the Palestinian national team
Hernán Madrid and the
Argentine-born
Alejandro Naif.
2006–present
After an unsuccessful Asian Cup qualifying campaign, the
PFA hired Austrian coach
Alfred Riedl to lead the team in the
2006 FIFA World Cup qualifications. Palestine were drawn in a group alongside
Uzbekistan,
Iraq and
Chinese Taipei. In their first match, Palestine recorded an historic 8–0 win against the Taiwanese; two months later a 1–1 draw against Iraq put Palestine in first place in the group. Preparation for the team's third game, away to Uzbekistan, were hampered after the Israeli authorities refused travel permits for nearly half the squad. Barely able to put together a full team, Palestine sank to a 3–0 defeat, before losing both of their remaining games.
Palestine were drawn in a group in
Asian Cup Qualifying for the 2007 tournament alongside 2004 finalists
China, eventual winners
Iraq, and
Singapore. Palestine still had a chance of qualifying until the penultimate round, after a 1–0 win against Singapore and a 2–2 draw against Iraq. Palestine was invited to participate in the inaugural
Challenge Cup in Bangladesh, where they beat
Guam 11–0,
Cambodia 4–0 and drew with
Bangladesh to top their group and reach the quarterfinal, where they were beaten 1–0 by
Kyrgyzstan. In the summer of 2006, Palestine achieved its highest ever FIFA ranking at 115, placing them 16th in the Asian continent. The team remained without a manager for most of 2007 and preparations for
World Cup Qualifying were severely lacking. Palestine lost the first leg of a two-legged play-off against
Singapore 0–4 and did not play the return leg as a result of Israeli travel restrictions.
Two and a half years later, in March 2011, Palestine played its first ever competitive home game. The game, at the
Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, was the second leg of a qualifier for the
2012 Olympic Games, against
Thailand. Thailand had won the first leg 1–0 in
Bangkok; Palestine won the second 1–0 with a goal by
Abdelhamid Abuhabib in the 43rd minute. The draw on aggregate led to a penalty shootout, where Palestine lost by 5–6.
[8] However, as Thailand was ordered to forfeit the first match because of fielding an ineligible player
[9] (see
Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's Asian Qualifiers Preliminary Round 1), Palestine replaced Thailand to play
Bahrain next. In the next round against Bahrain, although Palestine won the first (away) match at
Bahrain National Stadium by 1 – 0,
[10] they lost the second (home) match by 1 – 2
[11] and eliminated by
away goals rule.
[12]
The team beat
Afghanistan 3–1 on aggregate (2–0 home, 1–1 away) in the
first round of
AFC qualification for the
2014 FIFA World Cup. They faced
Thailand in the
second round, with an away match on July 23, 2011 in
Buriram, and a home match on July 28 at Al-Ram. Palestine lost the away leg 1-0, with back-up goalkeeper
Mohammed Shbair saving a penalty in the dying moments of the match to keep the tie alive. Palestine took a 1-0 lead in the 6th minute of the return leg through a
Murad Alyan goal but conceded 10 minutes before halftime, meaning they would have to win by two clear goals in order to advance. Palestine took a 2-1 lead late in the second half but had a man sent off and conceded a goal whilst desperately searching for a winner. They were eliminated form
AFC qualification on an aggregate score of 2-3, if the
Asian Football Confederation elects to keep the same qualifying format for the
2018 FIFA World Cup they will be ranked 21st and receive a 1st round bye.
Difficulties
The Palestinian Football Federation faces problems in organising even training sessions for the entire team because of travel restrictions placed by
Israel upon people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the difficulty in obtaining an exit visa from Israel. Palestine FA promised the Jordanian that they would not recruit players from there considering that almost 70% of the Jordanian population have Palestinian ancestry, while many Israeli-Arabs are unwilling to trade in their Israeli passport for a Palestinian one.
[citation needed] Many players in the team are drawn from the
Palestinian diaspora, from as far away as
Chile and the
United States.
[13]
Recently, Israel's refusal to issue exit visas has resulted in players, or in some case the entire team, being unable to represent the country. In November 2006 (the last match of
2007 AFC Asian Cup qualification group stage is scheduled), all players based inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip were denied exit visas. The
AFC cancelled the match since both teams had been eliminated from the competition by virtue of their previous results against China and Iraq.
[14] In October 2007, the second leg of a crucial
2010 World Cup qualifier between Palestine and
Singapore was not played due to Palestine's inability to obtain exit visas. The
AFC and
FIFA decided not to reschedule the match despite protests from the PFA, and Singapore was awarded a 3–0 win in a walkover match.
[15] In May 2008, the team was not allowed to travel to the
2008 AFC Challenge Cup. After a 2011 World Cup qualifier against Thailand, two starters, Mohammed Samara and Majed Abusidu, were refused entry to the West Bank and therefore could not travel back with the team from Thailand.
[16]
A film,
Goal Dreams, was made about the team attempting to overcome obstacles in the qualification for the 2006 World Cup, who were also featured on the
BBC documentary series
Frontline Football.
