Palestine national football team

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Palestine
Nickname	-
Association	Palestinian Football Federation
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Head coach	Azmi Nassar Mohammed Sabah
Most caps	?
Top scorer	Fahed Attal (12)
Home stadium	Palestine Stadium
FIFA code	PAL
FIFA ranking	126
Highest FIFA ranking	115 (April 2006)
Lowest FIFA ranking	191 (April 1999)
Elo ranking	135
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 Authority and is controlled by the Palestinian Football Federation. It is not to be confused with the Palestine/Eretz Israel national football team, in British Mandate of Palestine. Both the Israel Football Association and the Palestine Football Federation count the 5 international matches played by PFA between 1934-1940 in their record.

The current Palestine Football Federation was founded in 1962, 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. This is especially impressive as the team has no home fixtures, playing most of their games in the Qatar capital, Doha and training in the Egyptian town of Ismailia.

Contents 1 Difficulties 2 World Cup record 3 Asian Cup record 4 West Asian Football Federation Championship record 5 AFC Challenge Cup record 6 References

[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 a visa. In addition, there are no proper training facilities in the occupied territories.^[1] 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 desperate players is that sport is the only realm in which a Palestinian state is fully recognised.^[2]

Some claim that Israel deliberately targets members of the Palestine football team for the same reason.^{[citation needed]} Tariq al Quto was killed by the Israel Defense Force,^[3] and striker Ziad al Khourd was banned from travelling and had his house destroyed.^[4]

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] World Cup record

• 1930 to 1998 - Did not enter
• 2002 - Did not qualify
• 2006 - Did not qualify

[edit] Asian Cup record

• 1956 to 1996 - Did not enter
• 2000 - Did not qualify
• 2004 - Did not qualify
• 2007 - Did not qualify

[edit] West Asian Football Federation Championship record

• 2000 to 2004 - Round 1
• 2006 - Qualified

[edit] AFC Challenge Cup record

• 2006 - Quarter Finals

[edit] References

1. ^ "Palestine's football pride", BBC News Online, 2004-07-01. Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
2. ^ Taji Farouky, Saeed. "Palestine team's World Cup woes", 2006-06-07. Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
3. ^ Willacy, Mark (2006-06-30). Palestinian National Football Team prepares for the next World Cup despite difficulties. Retrieved on 2006-09-28.
4. ^ Film documents hardships facing Palestinian football team (2004-11-04). Retrieved on 2006-09-28.

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