The migration of Israel from AFC to UEFA

This can be described whenever a new nation such as Kosovo (UEFA) or South Sudan (AFCON) joined their continental football confederation respectively when they intended to play official continental football. However, there are some cases that might be questioned by certain football fans around the world. One of the questions is about why Israel FA joined UEFA despite the nation is located in Asia.

Brief History

In order to understand this situation, you have to know about the history of the Israel Football Association. Prior to the existence of Israel FA, it was the Palestinian Football Association who was formed first in 1928 and joined FIFA in the following year. At that time, the Palestinian Football Association was made up of Arab clubs, Jewish clubs and clubs representing British policemen and soldiers. However, following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 signifies the independence of Israel as a nation. Hence, the football team officially became the national team of Israel.

AFC era (1954-1974)

As the heritance of the old Palestinian Football Association, the Israel Football Association competed in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) by nature. However, the politic complication situation between the Israeli and Palestinian side had caused some problems when it comes to official continental football competition. Several Muslim countries refused to compete against Israel due to the Arab League boycott of Israel. This had caused Israel to win the 1958 World Cup qualifying stage for Asia and Africa without playing a single game. This had forced FIFA to react by arranging them to play against Wales in order to ensure the team did not qualify without playing at least a qualifying game.

Israel was a dominant force in Asian football in that era as well. In their only four appearances in the AFC Asian Cup, Israel had finished at least third place in each and every participation in that tournament. They even won the tournament in 1964 in their nation as well. In 1968, Israel went to their first-ever Olympic Games, lost to Bulgaria in the quarterfinals. In the following year, Israel reached the pinnacle of their time as the AFC football nation as they qualified for their first and only FIFA World Cup in 1970. They even drew against the finalist Italy in that tournament. In 1976, Israel went to their second Olympic Games and lost in the quarterfinals again, this time against Brazil.

In 1974, Israel was officially excluded from AFC competitions. This is the beginning of the nomadic era of Israeli football all around the continent.

The nomadic era

In order to compete in continental football despite not included in any football confederation, Israel had played a majority of their game against the European team. They even competed in the European stage of qualification of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. For the next two tournaments, it entered the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) qualification stage. They even made it to the CONMEBOL-OFC playoffs for the 1990 FIFA World Cup. They lost to the Valderrama inspired Colombia by just 1-0 in aggregate.

Settled in UEFA

In 1991, the Israeli clubs began to participate in European club competitions and the national team returned to the UEFA World Cup qualification in the following year. In 1994, Israel finally received full UEFA membership which ended the 20 years nomadic period without attaching to any football confederation. However, their football standard has since dwarfed by the European giants and they are yet to qualify for both the FIFA World Cup and Euro tournament since they obtained full UEFA membership. Their closest opportunity for them to qualify in the major tournament is in Euro 2000, where they lost to Denmark in the qualification playoff round.

Despite they never qualified for any major tournament since they joined UEFA, they had also produced quite a number of football talents such as Yossi Benayoun, Eran Zahavi and Tal Ben Haim that make their name in the European football. Besides, the Israeli football club occasionally performed in UEFA club competitions as well. At the time of writing, they are still in the qualifying playoff round for Euro 2020 against Scotland. They will certainly hope that luck is finally on their side and get qualified in a major tournament for the first time since 1970 which they are still attached with AFC.

#Israel #UEFA #AFC