Palestine tops Israel in FIFA rankings for first time

The Palestinian national football team has beaten Israel in the world rankings for the first time, despite Israel restricting its development, according to Haaretz.

The Israeli national team was graded 98 out of 112 participating countries; it’s worst every ranking, while Palestine ranked 82, an all-time high.

One of the best screen shots you will ever see.
82nd place PALESTINE
98th place ISRAEL
Amazing achievement by Palestine in FIFA world rankings. pic.twitter.com/drKk5ku1aq

— Irish in Gaza (@Irishingaza) November 23, 2017

The Palestinian national team has seen growing success since its debut participation in the Asian Football Confederation Asia. Forty-one-year-old coach Abdel-Nasser Barakat has focused his team on winning preliminary games for the 2019 Asian Cup.

Israeli Minister of Culture and Sport Miri Regev reportedly reacted to the rankings by commissioning a management consultancy group to examine what she described as a “crisis” within the team.

“Soccer receives the biggest budget of all sports, but unfortunately the national team hasn’t qualified for a major tournament in 47 years. Due to the current crisis, which can be seen in the resounding failure in the latest campaign and the drop in the rankings, there is an immediate need to examine the reasons for failure.”

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Palestine’s success is viewed as an historic achievement in light of the numerous obstacles the Palestinian Football Federation faces as a result of Israeli aggression. This has included the denial of players’ exit visas, the administrative detention of team members and causing damage to facilities such as the Palestinian Stadium in Gaza.

“With this classification, we have defeated the occupation’s measures and its daily harassment, from preventing the freedom of movement of athletes through to all measures that impede Palestinian sport,” Palestinian Football Association (FA) head Jibril Rajoub said last week.

Palestine also recently challenged FIFA to take action against Israeli clubs based in illegal settlements in the West Bank.

However, last month, FIFA’s governing body announced that it would not take a position against the offending teams.

“Given that the final status of the West Bank territories is the concern of the competent international public law authorities, the FIFA Council agrees that FIFA, in line with the general principle established in its Statutes, must remain neutral with regard to political matters,” the international football association said in a statement.

The decision prompted widespread criticism from Palestinian FA who emphasised the need for all organisations to condemn violations of international law.

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