Palestine national football team

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Palestine

Association

Palestinian Football Federation

Confederation

AFC (Asia)

Head coach

TBA

Top scorer

Roberto Bishara (25)

Home stadium

Jericho Stadium

FIFA code

PLE

FIFA ranking

176

Highest FIFA ranking

115 (April 2006)

Lowest FIFA ranking

191 (April 1999)

Elo ranking

149





First kit





Second kit

First international

Egypt 8–1 Palestine

(Egypt; July 26, 1953)

Biggest win

Palestine 11–0 Guam

(Dhaka, Bangladesh; April 1, 2006)

Biggest defeat

Egypt 8–1 Palestine

(Egypt; July 26, 1953)

The Palestine national football team is the national team of the Palestinian Football Federation, representing Palestine.^[1] It is not to be confused with the Palestine/Eretz Israel national football team, which existed during the British Mandate of Palestine. Both the Israel Football Association and the Palestine Football Federation count the five international matches played by PFA between 1934–40 in their record.

The current Palestine Football Federation was founded in 1928, but wasn't recognized by FIFA until 1998, after the creation of the Palestinian Authority.

It 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. For security reasons the team plays no fixtures within Palestinian territory, playing most of their "home" games in the Qatar capital, Doha and training in the Egyptian town of Ismailia.

1 Difficulties
2 Records
3 Current Squad
4 Results since 1998
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Difficulties

The Palestinian Football Federation faces many problems in organising something as mundane as a training session 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. In addition, there are no proper training facilities in the occupied territories.^[2] As a result, many players in the team are drawn from the Palestinian diaspora, from as far away as Chile and the United States. A major factor for these disparate players is that sport is the only realm in which a Palestinian state is fully recognised.^[3]

Recently, Israel's refusal to issue exit visas has resulted in players or in some case the entire team being unable to represent their country. In November 2006, all players based inside Palestine were denied exit visas. The AFC, Asia's governing football body decided to cancel the match since both teams had been eliminated from the competition by virtue of their previous results against China and Iraq. ^[4] In October 2007, the second leg of a crucial World Cup qualifier between Palestine and Singapore was not played due to Palestine's inability to obtain an exit visa. AFC and FIFA decided not to reschedule the match despite protests from Palestine's FA. Instead Singapore was awarded with a 3-0 win in a walkover match. ^[5]

Some of the athletes have been directly affected by the Arab–Israeli conflict. Tariq al Quto was killed by the Israel Defense Force,^[6] and striker Ziyad Al-Kord was banned from travelling and had his house destroyed.^[7]

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.

[edit] Records

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1998 - Did not enter
2002 to 2010 - Did not qualify

[edit] Asian Cup record

1956–1996: Did not enter
2000: Did not qualify
2004: Did not qualify
2007: Did not qualify

[edit] West Asian Football Federation Championship record

2000: Round 1
2004: Round 1
2004: Round 1
2007: Round 1

[edit] AFC Challenge Cup record

2006: Quarter finals
2008: Withdrew

[edit] Current Squad

The following players were called up for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification.

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB (Age)	Caps	Goals	Club
3	DF	Hamada Eshbair	9 March 1980			Khidmat Al-Shatia
6	MF	Edgardo Abdala	1 July 1978		2	Ñublense
7	DF	Omar Jarun	10 December 1983			Vancouver Whitecaps
8	MF	Ibrahim Al Sweirki			2	Ittihad Al-Shajaiya
11	FW	Fady Lafy Abulatifa	23 March 1979		5	Al-Faisaly
15	DF	Majed Abusidu	1 January 1985			Al-Salmiya
16	FW	Fahed Attal		15	12	Al-Jazeera
17	FW	Taysir Amer	26 January 1977		3	Al-Ahly Qalqilya
18	DF	Ismail Al Amour			1
19	DF	Ammar Abuseleisel	10 March 1984			Al-Hilal Gaza
21	GK	Ramzi Saleh	8 August 1980			Al-Ahly
25	DF	Roberto Bishara	6 April 1980			CD Palestino
30	GK	Mohammed Shbair
32	MF	Ali Nassar
35	MF	Mohammed Mohammed
36	FW	Rami Assaad				Al-Mabarrah
37	MF	Mohamad Al Shery
49	MF	Ahmed Keshkesh	15 September 1984		3	Al-Hilai Gaza