International Matches

Web page updated 12 October 2017

 FIFA, UEFA and AFC international tournaments.

Involvement of Israeli and Palestinian teams

Page Contents

  • Aim of this page
  • Summary – dates of key matches involving Israel and Palestine
  • Listing of all international tournaments – with website references
  • FIFA Men’s Tournaments – details
  • FIFA Women’s Tournaments – details
  • UEFA Men’s Tournaments – details
  • UEFA Women’s Tournaments- details
  • AFC Men’s Tournaments – details
  • AFC Women’s Tournaments – details
  1. Aim of this page.

To provide up to date information on the participation of Israel and Palestine in international tournaments.  This is to help activists plan demonstrations and other actions as well as support the development of Palestinian football.

  1. Summary

Israeli National team matches.  Below are details of the key matches involving the senior national Israeli team playing away which provide opportunities for protests.

Date Tournament Home Team / Venue
19 Oct 2017 FIFA World Cup Womens 2019 Serbia
9 Nov 2017 UEFA European Men Under 21 2019 Kosovo
14 Nov 2017 UEFA European Men Under 21 2019 Germany
23 Nov 2017 FIFA World Cup Womens 2019 Austria
26 Nov 2017 FIFA World Cup Womens 2019 Finland

 

Israeli Club team matches. No Israeli teams qualified for the Group Stages of the Champions League in 2017.  Hapoel Beer Sheva and Maccabi Tel Aviv progressed to the Group stage of the Europa League.

Date Tournament Home Team / Venue
19 Oct 2017 Europa League Astana v M Tel Aviv
2 Nov 2017 Europa League Steaua Buchurest v Hapoel Beer Sheva
23 Nov 2017 Europa League Lugano v Hapoel BS
7 Dec 2017 Europa League Villarreal v. M. Tel Aviv

 

Palestinian matches.  Palestine is currently leading its qualifying group for a position in the 2019 Asian Cup finals. (see 8.1)

UEFA Nations League.  This competition will start in September 2018.  UEFA expects it will replace many friendlies that are played at national level; it should give some of the excitement at a national level that the Champions League has a club level. UEFA has identified the four Divisions for the first matches.  Scotland and Norway are amongst the thirteen teams including Israel in Dvision C.  Deails are given in section 6.1

 Listing of all international tournaments

Most major tournaments for both men’s and women’s national teams are held on a four yearly basis, although the AFC’s Challenge Cup is held biannually.  Club tournaments, such as the European Champions League and Europa League are held annually.

This section gives website references to all FIFA, UEFA and AFC tournaments.  Check out the relevent websites for the absolute latest information.   Subsequent sections extract relevent details at 29 March 2017.

3.1    FIFA tournaments (including Olympics)

Most FIFA tournaments are for national teams.  These comprise ten men’s and five women’s competitions and include senior and junior, five a side (futsal), and beach football.  Details of the next tournament for each competition can be viewed on the FIFA website:  http://www.fifa.com/fifa-tournaments/index.html and the most relevant are listed below.

Men

2018 FIFA World Cup, Russia, 14 June – 15 July

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup, Russia 17 June – 2 July

2017 FIFA Under 17 World Cup, India, 6 October – 28 October

2017 FIFA Club World Cup, United Arab Emirates,  6-16 December

2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup, Columbia, 10 September – 1 October

2019 FIFA Under 20 World Cup, venue and timing to be confirmed

2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Tokyo,

2016 Blue Stars/FIFA Youth Cup, 4 – 5 May

 

Women

2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, France,

2018 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup, France

2018 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup, Uruguay

2020 Olympic Football Tournaments, Tokyo

 

3.2    UEFA tournaments

Excluding the four qualifiers for FIFA Tournaments, there are 17 different UEFA tournaments for both mens’ and women’s national and club teams.  The following tables link to the relevant pages of the UEFA website.  Under the “Standings” tab you can see tables and results of the various rounds of each UEFA competition identified on the website plus the regional qualifiers for World Cups.

Men’s National

Men’s Club

Women’s National

Women’s Club

3.3    AFC Tournaments

Men’s national

Men’s Club

Women’s National

Futsal

Others

 

  1. FIFA Men’s Tournaments

4.1    2018 FIFA Men’s World Cup (finals 14 June to 15 July, Russia)

4.1a  Israel’s games

European Qualification Round 1 consists of seven round-robin, home-and-away groups of six teams each as well as two round-robin, home-and-away groups of five teams each.  Israel came forth in Qualifying Group G behind Spain, Italy and Albania and was eliminated.

4.1b  Palestine’s games

Due to their FIFA standing Palestine was not required to play in the Asian Round 1 qualifiers which took place in early 2015 but progressed straight to Round 2.  In Round 2 40 teams were divided into 8 Round Robin home and away groups.  Palestine was in Group A along with Saudi Arabia, UAE, Malysia, Timor-Leste.

The 8 group winners and 4 best placed runners up will progress to Round 3 of the World Cup Qualifiers.  As a result comig third in their World Cup Qualifying group, see below, Palestine was eliminated from the World Cup but will progress to the third qualifying round for the Asian Cup  (see Section 8.1).

Team Played Points Qualification
Saudi Arabia 8 20
UAE 8 17
Palestine 8 12 Asian   Cup (third qualifying round, see section 8.1)
Malaysia 8 4
Timor Leste 8 2

 

4.2    2019 FIFA Under 20 World Cup,

For European teams the Qualifying Tournament is the 2018 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, and Israel has already been eliminated. (see 6.3)

4.3    2017 FIFA Under 17 World Cup, India, 6 – 28 October 2017

Israel will not feature in the finals in October

4.4    2017 FIFA Club World Cup, UAE, 6 – 16 December 2017

Winners of the UEFA, AFC and other regions’s Champions Leagues qualify for the finals.

4.5    2020 Olympics, Tokyo

No information available as yet

.

  1. FIFA Women’s tournaments

5.1    2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup, France, 7 June to 7 July

Qualifying Rules.  European qualifying for the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup comprises two group stages and a play-off round. France qualifying automatically as hosts.

Preliminary round

The 16 lower-ranked nations were drawn into two four-team mini tournaments played from 6 to 11 April 2017. Each mini-tournament was staged by one of the countries and each team played one another once, with the group winners and the runner-up with the best record against the sides first and third in their section progressing.  Israel progressed from this round to the Group stage.

Palestine played in the preliminary rounds in April with Thailand and Chinese Taipei (Lebanon and Guam withdrew) and with no wins, failed to progress from this round.

Group stage
The five teams that progressed from the Preliminary round, including Israel, joined 30 entrants in seven groups of five nations drawn on 25 April 2017 and played from 11 September 2017 to 4 September 2018 on a home-and-away basis. The seven group winners qualify for the finals. The four runners-up with the best record against the sides first, third and fourth in their groups go into the play-offs for the remaining UEFA berths in France. Israel is in Group 7 along with Austria, Finalnd, Serbia and Spain. Currently scheduled matches for Israel are:

Date Home Team Away Team
19 Oct 2017 Serbia Israel
23 Oct 2017 Israel Spain
23 Nov 2017 Austria Israel
26 Nov 2017 Finland Israel

Play-offs
The four second placed contenders from the Group state are drawn into two ties played over two legs in October 2018. The two winners then meet in November 2018 to decide the final qualifiers.

Finals
Twenty-four teams, including France the other eight European qualifiers, will compete. There will be six groups of four teams with the top two plus the four best third-placed teams progressing to the knockout phase.

5.2    2018 FIFA Under 20 Women’s World Cup, France, 5-24 August

A total of 16 teams qualify for the final tournament. In addition to France who qualified automatically as hosts, the other 15 teams qualify from six separate continental competitions. Teams from UEFA qualified via the 2017 UEFA Under 19 tournament and were England, Germany, Netherlands and Spain.   Israel failed to qualify.

Palestine did not compete in qualifying tournaments.

5.3    2018 FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup Uruguay 13 Nov. – 1 Dec  

Teams from UEFA will be drawn from the 2018 UEFA Womens Under 17 Championship (see 7.2)  the finals of which will be played in England 3 – 19 May 2018.

Palestine did not compete in qualifying tournaments.

5.4    2020 Women’s Olympics, Tokyo

No information available as yet.

 

  1. UEFA Men’s tournaments

6.1    UEFA Nations League

UEFA has introduced an new league to provide more demanding competition at national level, replacing in large part friendly internationals. UEFA says the new Nations League will “create more meaningful and competitive matches for teams and a dedicated calendar and structure for national team football”.

There will still be space for some friendly matches, especially for top teams who may wish to face opposition from outside Europe, as they will have less matches being in groups of three.  Lower ranked teams who have struggled against sides ranked above them will get the chance to take part in more balanced matches.

The Nations League and European Qualifiers will adhere to the existing agreed international calendar so there will be no additional demands on players.

UEFA claim finances are not a driver for this new competition.

  • The competition, which starts in September 2018, will provide four qualifying spots for Euro 2020 and will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent Euro 2020 qualifiers.
  • By virtue of the format, lower-tier countries – the bottom 16 in the rankings – are now guaranteed one of the 24 qualifying slots for the European Championship finals.
  • There will also be promotion and relegation between divisions.

Format of the Nations League.

  • The 55 European national teams have been divided into four leagues based on Uefa’s national association coefficient rankings on 11 October, 2017.
  • Leagues A and B, the top two divisions, will consist of four groups of three teams.
  • League C will comprise one group of three teams and three groups of four sides, while League D will be made up of four groups of four teams.
  • The draw for the first phase Nations League will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland, on 24 January, 2018.
  • In each league, four group winners are promoted (or play in the Nations League Finals, see below) and four teams are relegated for the next competition to be played in 2020.
  • The overall Nations League rankings will determine the composition of the draw pots for the subsequent European qualifiers (European Championship or World Cup).
  • The Nations League will also provide four teams which will contest play-offs in March 2020 (see below) to qualify for Euro 2020.
 
League A League B League C League D
Germany Austria Hungary Azerbaijan
Portugal Wales Romania Macedonia
Belgium Russia Scotland Belarus
Spain Slovakia Slovenia Georgia
France Sweden Greece Armenia
England Ukraine Serbia Latvia
Switzerland Republic of Ireland Albania Faroe Islands
Italy Bosnia & Herz’govina Norway Luxembourg
Poland Northern Ireland Montenegro Kazakhstan
Iceland Denmark Israel Moldova
Croatia Czech Republic Bulgaria Liechtenstein
Netherlands Turkey Finland Malta
Cyprus Andorra
Estonia Kosovo
Lithuania San Marino
Gibraltar

When will the Nations League take place?

  • The Nations League group games will be held over six matchdays, during the ‘double-headers’ in September, October and November 2018.
  • The winners of the four groups in League A will contest the Nations League Finals competition in June 2019.
  • The knockout Nations League Finals (semi-finals, third-place match and final) will be hosted by one of the four countries, appointed by the Uefa Executive Committee in December 2018.

How will the Nations League affect qualifiers?

  • The top two in each of the 10 qualifying groups for Euro 2020 will qualify automatically. There will be five groups of five teams and five groups of six teams.
  • The remaining four of the 24 places for Euro 2020 will go to play-off winners, comprised of the 16 group winners of the Nations League.

For  further details see: Uefa’s guide to the Nations League

 

6.2    2020 UEFA European Championship (EUROs)

UEFA EURO 2020 will be held across 13 different European cities in the summer of 2020.

Group Matches, round of sixteen and quarter finals;

Munich (Germany) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Baku (Azerbaijan) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Rome (Italy) – three group matches and a quarter-final
St Petersburg (Russia) – three group matches and a quarter-final
Brussels (Belgium) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Copenhagen (Denmark) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Budapest (Hungary) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Amsterdam (Netherlands) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Dublin (Republic of Ireland) – three group matches and a round of 16
match
Bucharest (Romania) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Glasgow (Scotland) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
Bilbao (Spain) – three group matches and a round of 16 match
London (England) – see below

 

Semi finals and finals

The semi-finals and final of UEFA EURO 2020 will be held at Wembley Stadium in London, England.

 

Qualifying matches for EURO 2020 will commence in March 2019 with countries split into 10 groups of 5 or 6.  The top two teams in each group will qualify for the finals.  The fianl four places will be decided via play-offs between the winners of the 16 Nations League in 2018.

 

6.3    2018 UEFA European Under 19 Championship , Finland (16 – 29 July 2018)

Qualifying Round mini tournments were played 3 – 9 October 2017 and Israel was eliminated following matches with Austria, Lithuania and Kosovo. .

6.4    2018 UEFA European Under 17 Championship , England (3-19 May 2018)

Qualifying Round mini tournments will be played 13/16/19 October 2017 and Israel is in Group 3 with Czech Republic (hosts), Turkey, Israel and Armenia.   The qualifying round is made up of 13 groups of four countries playing in one-venue mini-tournaments. The top two from qualifying group progress to the elite round alongside the five third-placed sides with the best record against the leading pair in their groups. In the elite round, held in spring 2018, those 31 qualifiers plus the top seed – given a bye this far – compete in eight mini-tournament groups of four. The group winners and seven runners-up with the best record against the teams first and third in their section advance to the finals to join the hosts.

6.5.   2019 UEFA European Under 21 Championship, Italy and San Marino, 16 – 30 June 2019

Israel is in Qualifying Group 5 with Germany, Norway, Republic of Ireland, Azerbaijan, and Kosovo.  Qualifying stages are played 25 March 2017 to 16 October 2018, and play-offs on 12-20 November 2018.   The nine group winners qualify automatically for the finals.  The four runners-up with the best records against the teams first, third, fourth and fifth in their group go into the play-offs in October 2018 where a couple of two-legged ties will decide the last two qualifiers.  Standings on 10 October  2017 for Group 5 are as follows:

Group 5 P W D L F A GD P
Rep. Ireland 4 3 1 0 8 1 7 10
Germany 3 2 0 1 8 4 4 6
Kosovo 4 2 0 2 6 4 2 6
Norway 5 1 2 2 5 7 -2 5
Israel 3 1 1 1 3 5 -2 4
Azerbaijan 3 0 0 3 3 12 -9 0

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Qualifying matches that have been scheduled for 2017 are:

9 November 2017                Kosovo v Israel

14 November 2017              Germany v Israel

Matches for 2018 will be announced later.

 

6.6    2017/18 UEFA Club Tournaments – Champions League,  Europa League  and Youth League

UEFA Champions League and Youth League:  No Israeli teams qualified for either League.

UEFA Europa League: Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Hapoel Be’er Sheva qualified for the Group Stages

Maccabi Tel Aviv is in Group A along with Villarreal (Spain), Astana (Kazakstan), Slavia Praha (Czech Rep.) ). Hapoel Be’er Sheva is in Group G with Plizen (Czech Rep.) FCSB (Romania) and Lugano (Switerland)

At 10 October, after two games, Maccabi Tel Aviv lie bottom of their league, with one loss and one draw.  Hapoel Beer Sheva are third in their group with one win and one loss.

Match dates are (away matches for Israeli teams in bold) :

19th October:  Astana v M Tel Aviv;  Hapoel B S v Steau Bucurest

2nd November:  M. Tel Aviv v Astana,  Steau Buchurest v Hapoel B S

23rd November:  Lugano v Hapoel B S,  M. Tel Aviv Slavia Praha

7th December:  Hapoel B S v Plzen,  Villareal v M. Tel Aviv

  1. UEFA Women’s tournaments

7.1    2021 UEFA Women’s European Championship

Venue and other details are yet to be defined.  Only England has annouced that it will bid to host.

7.2    2018 UEFA European Under 19 Championship , Switzerland (18-30 July)

Israel came third in Qualifying Group 11 and so failed to progress.

In odd-numbered years this competition acts as a qualifier for the following year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup (ie the 2017 European Under 19 Championship will lead to the 2018 Under 20 World Cup).

 

7.3    2018 UEFA European Under 17 Championship, Lithuania (9-21 May 2018)

Israel is in Qualifying Group 6 with Sweden (hosts), Russia and Croatia and matches will be played 19-22 October  2017. The competition begins with one-venue four-team mini-tournaments, although the nations with the highest UEFA coefficient may be given byes to the second qualifying round. The winners and runners-up of the groups go through along with the the third-placed team with the best record against the first and second-placed teams, to ensure there are 24 sides in the next phase.  These 24 teams are drawn into six groups of four teams. The groups are played as one-venue mini-tournaments with the winners and the runners-up with the best record against the teams first and third in their section progressing to the finals to join the hosts.  In the finals the eight teams are split into two groups of four. The top two in each group go through to the knockout phase, beginning in the semi-finals.

 

7.4    2017 UEFA Women’s Champions League

No Israeli team is represented.

 

  1. AFC Mens’ Tournaments

This part of the website is to be updated.

The AFC has subdivided all its national teams into three categories according to rankings:  developed, developing and emerging .  Palestine is in the emerging nations category.

The AFC website is not very up to date.  The following reflects what is known at present.

8.1    2019 Asian Cup, UAE, 5 Jan. – 1 Feb 2019

The finals will be contested by 24 teams in the UAE.  The host nation automatically qualifies and the remaining 23 places are determined among the 45 national teams through a qualifying competition running from March 2015 and March 2018.  The first two rounds also served as part of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification process for the AFC (see section 4.1b above).  In 2015/2016 Palestine came third in the FIFA World Cup Qualaifying group and therefore has progessed to the Asian Cup Qualifying Final Round.  Palestine has been drawn in Group D and leads the current standings, see below.  There are six groups of four and the winners and runners up progress to the finals in the UAE.

  Team

·

 Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification  
1 Palestine 4 4 0 0 17 1 +16 12 Qualification to 2019 AFC Asian Cup — 2–1 14 Nov 10-0
2 Oman 4 3 0 1 23 3 +20 9 27 Mar ’18 — 5–0 14–0
3 Maldives 4 1 0 3 3 11 −8 3 0–3 1-3 — 27 Mar ’18
4 Bhutan 4 0 0 4 0 28 −28 0 0–2 14 Nov 0–2 —

Updated to match(es) played on 10 October 2017. Source: AFC

 

Results and fixtures for Palestine in group D are as follows.

Date Home team Away team
28 Mar 2017 Maldive    0 Palestine  3
13 Jun 2017 Palestine 2 Oman       1
5 September 2017 Bhutan    0 Palestine  2
10 October 2017 Palestine  10 Bhutan     0
14 November 2017 Palestine Maldives
27 March 2018 Oman Palestine

 

8.2    2016 AFC Under 23 Championship,  Qatar

The finals were played in January; Japan won.  Palestine was not represented.

8.3    2016 AFC Under 19 Championship,  Bahrain

Palestine was in Qualifying Group C, came second after beating India and Afghanistan but lost to UAE and did not progress to finals.

8.4    2016 AFC Champions League,  (club tournament)

This competition is for the developed group of AFC countries, so there is no Palestinian participation

8.5    2016 AFC Cup,  (club tournament)

This annual international competition is for clubs in the AFC’s ‘developing nations’ category and for qualifying emerging nations.  Two Palestinian clubs have participated in the 2016 competition.  However, two Syrian teams refused to play in Palestine and, unjustly, were both awarded a 3-0 victory by the AFC Disciplinary Committee – the blame being put on Palestine for not finding a neutral venue as instructed by the AFC..

http://www.the-afc.com/competition/afc-cup

  1. AFC Womens’ Tournaments

This part of the website is to be completed.

 

 

Red Card Israeli Racism Website:  http://176.32.230.28/boycottisraelnetwork.net/rcir/

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