Neha Patil (Editor)

Israel at the FIFA World Cup

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This is a record of Israel's results at the FIFA World Cup. They have qualified for the finals on one occasion, in 1970. Israel qualified for the 1970 World Cup an Asian team. Soon after this, they were expelled from the Asian Football Confederation, and now compete in the European zone as a member of UEFA.

Contents

History

In 1934 and 1938 Mandatory Palestine competed in the World Cup. In 1950 Israel competed in the World Cup for the first time. FIFA states in reference to the 1930s Palestine Mandate team that the 'Palestine team' that had participated in previous competitions in the 1930s was actually the forerunner of today's Israel team and as such bears no relation to the national team of the Palestinian authority. However, the region currently known as Palestine is considered "one of the first Asian teams to compete in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers".

World Cup record

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks. **Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won. ***Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

1970 FIFA World Cup

At the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Israel participated for the first time. Israel qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in 1970, along with El Salvador and Morocco.

Although it was reported in the build-up to the final draw that seedings would be used, as had been the case at the previous two World Cup Finals, the FIFA Organising Committee ultimately announced that there would be no seeding of teams. Instead, the sixteen teams were divided into four 'geographical groupings', which also took into account the teams' strengths and even political considerations; the system ensured that Israel and Morocco would not be drawn to face each other after Morocco had earlier threatened to withdraw from the tournament, as they had done from the Olympic football tournament two years earlier, if that were the case.

1970 Qualifying Round 1

During the 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification Israel received a First Round bye in the first round and moved directly to the Second Round.

1970 Qualifying Round 2

In the second round, North Korea, quarter-finalists at the previous tournament, were disqualified after refusing to play in Israel for political reasons.

Qualifier history

Through the 2014 qualifier, Israel has entered the qualifiers for the World Cup on 19 occasions. In 1934 and 1938 Israel competed at Mandatory Palestine, and since 1950 has competed as Israel. In all years but 1970 Israel failed to qualify for the World Cup.

References

Israel at the FIFA World Cup Wikipedia